Strange Bedfellows
by DragonlordRynn
Summary: Chris Redfield was to head into Africa to check up on information regarding a known weapon trafficker. Only the BSAA decided to give him a partner on this one. Skinny guy called Alex, on loan from Blackwatch. Looks can be deceiving, and sometimes Bioweapons are your best friends.


**Author: So good news, I'm still working. Also currently working on 'Evolution 2', but the idea of a Resident Evil/Prototype Crossover had been in my head for a while. And when one Guest (or several, but I think it's the same guy) commented on my Prototype Story that they wonder what Alex would do if in Resident Evil, the answer was pretty easy.  
I still wrote up this mammoth of a one-shot because 'Are you kidding me, RE won't stand a chance' isn't really an answer. So...enjoy.**

* * *

_Friday, 20__th__ February 2009_

"Reports from field agent Reynard Fisher place Ricardo Irving into Kijuju just after a civil war broke out."

"Irving?! That little rat?!"

"Yes, we are aware who Irving is. He is suspected of bioweapon trafficking ever since the Raccoon City Incident. Coincidentally, Fisher's reports claim the presence of 'strangely tentacled animal carcasses', Quote-unquote."

"We should send a team."

"To Kijuju? Why should we care about some African country?"

A heavy fist hit the conference table _hard_. The room fell silent in an instant, all eyes on the Captain. Redfield's expression was twisted into one of pure rage. "Because if this shit gets out of this 'African country', who knows what it'll do to us?!"

"This will be of no further concern, Fisher keeps us updated on the process."

"Captain Redfield is still correct, this situation needs to be verified." The new voice that spoke made the entire room silent again- but for a whole different reason than Chris's outbreak. It was because they _feared_ the speaker. Chris glanced at the man who had been content to sit in a corner and just watch the meeting play out. Older than Chris, though not by much. Dark hair slicked back, a single white gray strand to the front. Maybe a genetic anomaly, or an old injury, because what little skin he could see was scarred. The rest of him was clad in a dark uniform, with tight body armor across his chest and various pockets and pouches attached to his belts. His sharp green eyes were watching without showing any emotions. Without even knowing his name or rank, Chris could already tell that this man was dangerous and experienced. And way more competent than the entire upper echelons of the BSAA together.

The man just lifted a finger, and the room flinched slightly. "_If_ this Ricardo Irving is indeed in Kijuju, a known hotspot for terrorists, then why aren't you meeting this with a little more...extreme prejudice? You should send a team there as soon as possible. Best case scenario, you stop a known weapon trafficker and take him into custody. Worst case scenario, you stumble into a new Raccoon City, Air Dome, or Queen Zenobia. Or India."

Chris heard the entire room inhale sharply, and felt his own eyebrows crawl upwards. India wasn't know to the general population, or at least, it wasn't known it was a biological attack- they were told it was an epidemic.

When nobody said a word, the man just scoffed. "Thought so. Now then, gentlemen, I'll give you twelve hours to decide on this, or Blackwatch _will_ get to Kijuju before you, burn the entire place to the ground and get your trafficker out of there."

Then he left the room. Chris watched him for a moment, before everything clicked. _Blackwatch_. Holy shit. Blackwatch were like the BSAA, a military branch that was there to stop biological attacks- but they were a lot less concerned about casualties. Manhattan had been their job, he knew, even though the general population did _not_. The results, as tragic as they were with two-and-a-half million dead, spoke for themselves. The virus that had reduced the entire Big Apple within three weeks, had been halted and driven back. Not even five months later, he was certain that the infection was mostly finished.

He got up and followed after the man, catching up to him the moment he left the main building and stepped into the courtyard. He wasn't surprised to realize that he had been expected, as the man just eyed him over his shoulder.

"Captain Redfield, correct?" He cocked his head. "Heard about you. You're the BSAA's golden boy. Finished more missions than most men here, ended more threats in months than these guys ever managed in _years_."

Chris blinked, then bowed his head in surprise. "Yeah, that's about right. You are?"

"Captain Cross of Blackwatch, rank Specialist and leader to the Wisemen Team." Captain Cross didn't change his expression at all. "I figure we'll see more of each other the next days, if your bosses are actually _smart_."

* * *

As it was, it didn't take the BSAA long to decide on a course of action after being subjected to Captain Cross's threat. Within five hours, they had all available personnel present inside the main hall of the base, declaring that they had a new mission, ready to start in the beginning of March.

And this time, they were going to be working with Blackwatch's Wisemen. The crowd was murmuring amongst themselves, though Captain Cross's presence on the stage silenced them quickly enough. They didn't know him, and still subjected themselves to his authority way quicker than Chris had ever witnessed them do.

"This mission", Captain Cross explained to them, "Will be a simple recon mission with the possibility to turn into a fully-blown search and destroy mission. Blackwatch and the BSAA will infiltrate the zone of Kijuju together and check in with the informant. If there is no biological threat, their main priority will be to capture Ricardo Irving and get information out of him. If there is a biological threat, the team's priority will be to assess the situation and call for backup, then capture Irving and put a stop to the situation." Sounded easy enough, though Chris sensed a big 'but' incoming. He could guess what it was- Blackwatch wasn't known to play fair. So he figured that they were going to want the glory of stopping the situation if there was one.

No, that wasn't right. Blackwatch kept hidden, unlike the BSAA. So maybe...maybe they wanted them for cover? Unlike the Marines, the BSAA actually worked in the same line of work. Chris furrowed his brows, because he couldn't imagine that going over well- there was going to be infighting sooner or later about who actually had the control. But then again, Blackwatch couldn't be worse than the current top management.

It would be interesting to see how this played out, and his eyes narrowed when Captain Cross motioned to a group of nine people behind him. The Wisemen, he told them. Eight were looking rather normal, number nine towered over the others at staggering eight foot three with a frame to match. Like a Nemesis clad in uniform, but that wasn't possible, because this giant had his mask off, and asides from the slightly exaggerated facial features, he didn't look any different from normal people.

"Woah. And here I thought you were big, Redfield", one of his men pointed out.

"Guess he always ate his veggies", another commented. "Would like to see how he works, though."

He got his wish quickly enough, since the Blackwatch Wisemen were to stay with the BSAA for the moment, acquiring their own sleeping quarters and participating in combat training. Chris always figured that his people were good, but the Wisemen took them apart. As it was, the big guy _was_ ridiculously strong, capable of lifting a Humvee over his head and grabbing soldiers like dolls to put them somewhere else. The solitary female on the team, one Renee Santos, could have been a rabid honey badger in disguise. Chris had never seen grown men getting their asses handed to them as fast as they did when facing off against this woman.

"Enjoying the show?" Captain Cross questioned during the latest training session. Chris only nodded. "My guys will have to learn a _lot_ here. Hell, are all of Blackwatch like that?"

"Only the Wisemen", was the answer. "I trained them myself, showed them how to work around being fragile humans."

That definitely made him curious. "Fragile humans?"

Cross scoffed. "I've seen the reports on Raccoon. On Spencer. On the other places where shit went down. You don't think for one moment that people got a chance in a one-on-one with a bunch of zombies? If they can't even deal with those, then what about larger creatures, like Hunters? If they don't realize how fragile they are, they will be torn apart."

Chris's eyebrows came down. "You had Hunters too in Manhattan?"

"Not the lizard variation. But they had the same name, so I guess we aren't very creative. Big fuckers, the small ones were already the size of a rhino. The big ones had the size of an elephant. Large claws, nasty teeth. Could heal rapidly, climb up walls, jump across the streets in a single bound. The big ones could call for a bunch of Walkers and smaller Hunters too. The only guys we had who could fight them face-to-face were men like Grayson over there", he jabbed his thumb into the direction of the eight-foot-giant. "Everybody else? Either they learnt how to stay out of range damn fast, or they are dead. Simple as that."

"You don't sound too broken up about losing your men."

"I try not to. Death is the normal occurrence in our job. If I cried over every dead soldier, I'd be just another broken veteran." He cleared his throat. "When we hunt, we kill. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. We are Blackwatch. We are the last line of defense. We will burn our own to hold the Red Line, it is the last line to ever hold." He glanced at the other captain for a brief moment. "That's our creed. Each and every of us is ready to die during our mission. Plus, most of our guys are ex-cons and criminals, no use shedding tears over assholes like us."

Chris was silent for a moment, mulling over what he had said. He didn't like dismissing his men like that, and that was the whole reason he'd been at the front since the last three years. But Blackwatch apparently thought differently. Men were just weapons, tools to be used and discarded as they saw fit. "What are you doing here anyways? The BSAA isn't exactly-"

"Isn't exactly what? Doing our job? You do, but you are hilariously unprepared. I guess someone in the upper echelons had enough of paying veteran's rents or bury good men. They told us to get here and whip you in shape." He snorted. "Personally I think they don't want to pay two groups that do basically the same stuff. Possibly they want to fuse Blackwatch with the BSAA. I'd like to tell myself that's only because it would be easier to react towards threats, since information can be shared more easily without all the spying and counter-spying going on." He shrugged. "We'll see how Africa works out. If something changes, it'll be after that."

Chris grimaced, not sure whether he would like having people like Blackwatch on his team. On the other hand, they could only profit from their experience. Like Cross said, they'd see how things worked out once Africa was over.

* * *

The mission was easy: Chris was to meet one agent of the the West Africa BSAA branch, and move with them to Fisher, let him give them the information they needed. The West African's branch Alpha Team was to try and locate Irving and either take him captive, or flush him out, with Chris and his contact to rendezvous with them. Their Delta Team was to remain on standby.  
As Chris was the infiltration unit, Captain Cross placed one of his Wisemen at his side. Chris had fully expected Santos, or Jackson, both being highly dangerous and the most skilled of the team. Maybe he would have gotten Grayson, though with his frame he was possibly not inconspicuous enough.  
Instead, Cross had ordered the smallest of the team to join him on the mission. He was Wisemen, so looks were deceiving, but Chris felt a little underwhelmed. The man was barely as tall as Kennedy was, with less visible muscle mass. He was thin when compared to the other soldiers, with pale skin and messy dark hair. The Blackwatch uniform contrasted strongly with him, making him look even less colorful. In fact, he looked a lot like a meth corpse that hadn't slept in weeks.  
But his eyes were like ice shards that kept watching every move around him. Always calculating, always alert. Like the eyes of a predator, Chris thought.

Didn't help he never saw him blink either.

He felt his hair stand on end as they sat in their transport plane and were en route to Africa. Both of them were silent, Chris checking over his hidden handgun, while the Wiseman was simply content staring into space. He knew, because he kept stealing glances at him. Guy never even looked into his direction, and once or twice Chris actually found himself questioning whether he was actually still _breathing_.

He startled slightly when his silent partner suddenly spoke up, somewhere over the Atlantic. His voice was rough, like he wasn't used to speaking. "You don't trust Blackwatch, and you don't trust me." It wasn't a question, just a statement.

"The BSAA got threatened and commandeered by you guys, you squeezed into our mission and your guys completely demolished my guys. And I don't know whether I like it."

The Wiseman snorted, and Chris realized that it was probably supposed to be amused. "That's good. You can't trust Blackwatch _ever_. The Wisemen will keep a secret, but if you need to trust someone, trust Cross."

"And you?" He didn't even knew his name.

Another snort. "It would be wise to not trust me. Yet at the same time, I am possibly one of the few honest people on the entire group."

That struck him as odd, and Chris inclined his head. "Then why did Cross send you with me?"

"Because I'm good at exactly one thing. I make things dead", was the honest reply. He hadn't seen a single gun or knife on his body. No food or water. But he was being confident in his abilities.

"Sounds like you belong to Blackwatch then."

There was a flash in his eyes for a brief moment, and Chris swore he saw sharp teeth being bared for a moment, before it settled back into his blank expression. "I am _not_ with Blackwatch. Blackwatch is my enemy."

Okay, that was odd. "Then why-"

"Do you know the saying 'If you can't beat them, join them'? Cross gave me the chance to correct my mistakes. I took it. But Blackwatch had been no better than Umbrella."

"No better? Blackwatch ends infections, hunts down the infected and prevents the spread on American soil", Chris argued. "They're the predecessors of the BSAA."

"They are _starting_ the infections in the first place, then just clean up their own mistake. Cross has figured it out- that is why I help him. Because he wants to stop this." He looked at him again, pale eyes narrow. "Are you still that naive to think your government is doing the _right_ thing? Wake up, Redfield. Everything that is happening, is happening because there are people in power who simply _want_. Those are the targets I want to destroy, yet at the same time, I know I have to start at the bottom, work myself up. Cross is aware of this, that's why he sent me with you."

"We're looking for terrorists. Not corrupt politicians."

"Is there a difference? Where do you think a bunch of goat farmers would have the money from to even _buy_ weapons like that?" He scoffed. "_You_ out of all people should know that people are far from perfect."

Chris was starting to feel irritated. "Why don't you tell me then?"

"A story then? I can do that. The year's 1969. A town in Idaho gets wiped off the map with extreme prejudice. Official sources claim it was a militia standoff. The Government killed them all. With a nuke. Against a bunch of people. _Sure_. Truth's more complicated, because this town had been build by the Government, or better, by the DARPA founded First Biological Warfare Command. Their goal had been to study a virus they discovered and the effect it had on humans."

Chris's head snapped up. "Wait- that sounds exactly like-"

"Exactly like what Umbrella did with Raccoon, correct? Only Raccoon wasn't meant to be a city-wide experiment. But like with Raccoon, the virus got out in Idaho. In the end, the Government told the First Biological Warfare Command to clear out their mess. Then their creed changed, and they became what is Blackwatch today. But they never actually changed." He eyed Chris briefly. "They took the virus out and eventually it ended up in Manhattan, with GENTEK. Last year, Idaho was repeated in a much more densely packed city."

"Okay, that's tragic, but I don't see-"

"The virus that wiped out Manhattan and the city in Idaho was a relative of the virus that wiped out Raccoon. They had the same origin. The same purpose. The same person behind it. You should know him, I was told you discovered his body in his private mansion in Arklay."

Chris hissed, eyes widening. "Spencer-"

"Oswell Spencer", his companion spat the name like it was poison. "I think he was funded by DARPA for the research on the virus. When he realized they weren't going to share the spoils with him however, he funded Umbrella as his own means to continue his research. But it was too late. DARPA and Blackwatch, and Spencer and Umbrella had their own strains of the same viral origin. Spencer's dead, as is the old leader of Blackwatch. Loose ends tied up, but the virus is still out there, even years after Umbrella died. It's still a net of information, and Irving is the most obvious tangle there. Cross is under the impression that if we get him, we can unravel much of this entire network."

"And that's why he's playing along with the BSAA", Chris realized. "Because we already have experience with Umbrella's weapons."

"Exactly. Just like I have experience with the weapons encountered in Manhattan."

"You've been there", Chris noted. "You survived Manhattan."

"I was the one to begin this mess. I took the Idaho strain and made it deadlier. Realized I wasn't working on a cure for cancer, tried to stop it. The Idaho Strain got out. City died around me. The World blamed me for it, when I was the one cleaning up the mess Blackwatch caused in the first place."

And that was when it all clicked together. Chris knew he found that face familiar, and now he knew why. It was the face of Interpol's most wanted terrorist. "Alex Mercer", he breathed out. "You're the guy who released the virus in Manhattan-"

"Technically, it was the _Government_ that released it. Without them, this entire branch of bioweapon research wouldn't have existed in the first place. And they were fully aware of this research, despite the ban on Bioweapons from '72. Don't forget that they _commissioned_ such weapons from Umbrella too." He flashed his teeth again. "I'm the guy that got the blame pinned on him, but at the same time, the Government is too afraid what would happen if they don't have me under control. So they gave me new targets in the hope that I don't reveal what I know."

"The BSAA won't help you create anarchy", Chris growled.

"It doesn't need to. I'm just targeting the terrorists. But with the information I uncover doing this, the BSAA can root out the traitors in their own ranks nice and easy without me leaking everything to the world. Win-win for everybody."

The captain inclined his head. "So you're meaning to tell me I'm working for a bunch of lying assholes?"

"Yes"

"And you're actually one of the good guys?"

"I do what is necessary, and what is necessary is not nice."

_Shit_. Chris wondered briefly whether he could set the plane on fire and get out without dying, but sometimes it was better to play along to catch the big fish. Didn't mean he had to like it, though. He leaned back, deciding to keep Blackwatch's own terrorist in his sights to create his own opinion on him. _This is going to be a fun_ _mission._

* * *

The plane touched down outside of the Kijuju autonomous zone just on a small airport. Chris hefted his bag with his water and food, and glanced around. There were a few workers manning the airfield, but nobody who was their contact. Instead, they found a Humvee with a full tank and a map with a marked street.

"Looks like we'll have a little road trip to do", he mentioned with his natural easy-going voice, then eyed his partner, putting up a show on appearing nonchalant. "Do you want to drive?"

Mercer snorted. "I pass. If it's not a tank or helicopter, I'm not interested."

_Since when could scientists fly choppers?_ Chris wondered, then shook his head. Right, Blackwatch, so that answered itself.

He opened the car to drop his bags into the back seat, found the keys in the glove compartment, and started the engine. When Mercer climbed in, the car rocked like something heavy was just loaded into it, and the suspensions creaked in protest. The Wiseman just shrugged, and Chris decided to let it go. No need to waste time with smalltalk when he wanted to get this mission over with. There were a few miles before them anyways, distance the Humvee ate up within a short time. The sun was climbing higher into the sky, though Chris barely noticed it. Nothing seemed off, and despite that, he felt that things weren't alright.

When the vehicle passed into Kijuju, he slowed down, and noticed his partner's expression turning sour. "Everything alright?"

"Something isn't right", the man replied with a growl, watching the people that wandered through the streets. Chris couldn't say there was anything strange. They got a few searching looks, a few dark looks, a few children were held back by their parents- but it didn't look any different to any other African city he'd seen on TV or visited himself during his job.

He carefully eased the large car through the dusty streets until they stopped in a open area. Some form of market place, maybe, but currently rather empty. He stopped the car in front of a small shop, and killed the engine. Mercer was already out of the door, glaring at the crowd like he hated everybody here. Or maybe he was slowly succumbing to the heat, wearing long sleeves and tons of protective gear under a black uniform even.

"Alex?", The man turned his glare on him. Chris waved his hand awkwardly, not even knowing why he picked the first name and not the last. Maybe because 'Mercer' was the alleged terrorist (and that was questionable), while 'Alex' was the neighbor one could talk to about the weather. And God knows he needed to see the man as something along that line, if they were to work together. "You might want to take off a layer or two. Wearing all black and closed up like that? You'll melt."

"I can deal", was the reply, then his head snapped up and his eyes narrowed even more as he stared at a spot over Chris's shoulder.

"Welcome to Africa." Redfield turned quickly, just slow enough so he wasn't actually _spinning_, but it was close enough. A woman had basically snuck up on him and he hadn't even noticed it.  
She wasn't a threat, though, that much he could tell. It wasn't so much her size, she was a good head smaller than him and probably only half his weight, and it wasn't that he recognized the lithe muscles visible beneath her dark skin. It were her eyes that told him she was an ally, warm and brown and somewhat amused.

"My name is Sheva Alomar", she told him without waiting for him to ask. "I'm your BSAA contact."

He felt some of the tension bleed from his muscles as he took her proffered hand and shook it. "I'm Chris Redfield", he nodded to his partner. "He's Alex. From Blackwatch."

"Mercer", the man in question added, and Sheva's eyes went big. He scoffed. "I'm on your side."

"I just weren't expecting the story to be true", she said simply, "We were contacted by one Captain Cross who explained the situation to us."

"You'll be taking us to our destination?" Chris asked.

"I will. As you know, there was a coup here that overthrew the government, and the people are somewhat nervous around White folks, and especially Americans." She glanced at Mercer. "So my presence will hopefully put them at ease."

She motioned for them to follow her, and they did, walking through the city of Kijuju at a steady pace. Chris noticed the population watching them with narrowed eyes and hateful glares, while Alex did his best to glare back. He was on edge, he could tell, but what from, he didn't know. The tensions still simmering beneath the surface? The traces of the coup were still ever-present in the form of damaged buildings, burnt-out cars and soldiers milling about. And walls made of metal topped with barbed wire, towards one of which Sheva led them.

A man dressed in soldier's fatigues and clutching a Kalashnikov (or a clone) jumped from a small shed and stormed towards them. His hand outstretched, he barked at them something. Chris couldn't understand what he was saying, though he understood the 'Hey' part. Then he started grabbing at the woman, feeling her down for any eventual weapons, when suddenly Alex opened his mouth and growled at him in the same language he used. The soldier eyed him, then backed off with an expression that was in both parts enraged and terrified. Sheva's eyebrows were level with her hairline, and when they started moving through the large double gates installed in the wall, she leaned towards Mercer. "That hadn't been so smart", she told him. "I have money, I was about to bribe him to let us through."

"Keep your money", he scoffed. "Scum like that doesn't deserve anything."

"Uh, what exactly did he tell him?" Chris demanded to know.

She grimaced. "He told him a few very creative ideas what to do with that gun of his, and finished with some serious blows to his manliness. Here in Africa, things like that can really set off a man."

"I'm hoping for it", Alex commented. "I'd like to actually try a few of those ideas." Then he froze, eyes narrowing on the Ghetto/village they just stepped into. Chris could see another flash of teeth, and this time it was in a real snarl.

"Everything alright?" Sheva questioned.

Chris grit his teeth. "Keep your guard up. Something is definitely weird here." As if on signal, their comms chimed and Kirk, Alpha Team's pilot, told them to be careful as illegal weapon deals and high tension were quite common around Irving. _Yeah, don't have to tell us that twice_, Chris thought as he noticed the hateful stares of the population following them. They even stopped beating a half dead guy on the floor just to glare at them. Alex scowled at them.

"They're trailing after us", Sheva remarked.

"I noticed", Chris growled, then paused and craned his neck back as they heard sirens starting to shriek. And all of a sudden, everybody was _gone_. _Uh-oh._

"I don't like this one bit", the woman muttered, and Chris agreed with her. He threw a glance over his shoulder to where Fisher's cover, a butcher shop, was. "Then let's go around, use the back entrance."

They quickly peeled out of the streets, ducked behind cover, and instantly weaved their way into the maze of buildings. Sheva suggested climbing over a few fences and low roofs to get to their destination, which they eventually did. Once at the back door of the shop, without any onlookers, they quickly slid in. Inside, Fisher was waiting.

"Took your sweet time", he commented simply.

"Stuff is being weird out there", Chris grunted.

"Not only out there", the man countered. "Come." He led them into the inside of his shop, through the meat storage. Chris rankled his nose at the smell of decay and the sound of flies, wondering how many people actually bought their meat here. Or maybe it was different in Africa, a little extra protein wasn't as negatively seen as in the states.

"I got your weapons here", Fisher pointed out, leading them to a locker. While Chris and Sheva grabbed various handguns that weren't holdout weapons, put on combat gear and filled their pockets with ammunition, Mercer remained behind, attention somewhere else.

"Hey, you want anything from here?"

"I'm good."

"No, seriously. You can't just fight bad guys empty-handed."

"And I was serious too."

Chris huffed out, rolling his eyes. Sheva was watching the Wiseman for a moment, then turned to Fisher. "Destination coordinates?"

The informant shrugged. "Pretty simple. Town square's just up ahead. Go through there, and you'll meet Alpha Team."

"Good"

Fisher cleared his throat, looking over his shoulder briefly. "Tell me, you ever heard of _Uroboros_?"

Chris froze, turning slowly to face the man. "Mostly just rumors. Fragments of files with the name. Something about doomsday."

"It's not rumor, is it?" Mercer asked, "It's another of these bioweapons, correct?"

"How do you know?"

"Blackwatch had extensive files. And I can get information nobody else can. I heard that name a few times, too often for it to be a mere rumor, but not often enough to know what it is about."

"Sounds about right", Fisher agreed. "Be careful out there, I bet you'll encounter it sooner or later" He vanished through the door to the shop. The other three went back through the door they came through, when Mercer tensed. Chris was about to ask what was going on, when he suddenly tore out of the room like a bat out of Hell. Sheva swore and Chris blinked dumbfounded, then realized that their Wisemen contact just ran off.

With a heartfelt curse on his lips, Chris started chasing after him with Sheva in hot pursuit. As it was, the trail was easily to follow- trashcans knocked over, fences literally run through- Mercer obviously hadn't given a shit about his cover. Just what could have set him off like that?

Chris didn't know, but he was glad when the trail ended just down the block and up a set of stairs. The door to the building there hung askew, barely attached to the frame.

Inside were two bodies, bloody heaps of flesh and shattered bones, while Alex was crouched next to an equally bloodied man, talking in Swahili to him.

Chris blinked. "What the fuck, man?!"

Mercer barely spared him a glance. "I saved a life, that's all", he commented simply.

"Saved a life?" His attention went back to the bodies, then the man on the floor. The blood on him had dripped down, wasn't his. Sheva already crouched down besides him, asking him what happened. The man was shaken, his speech incomprehensible even to Chris's ears, but he recognized one word. _Monster_.

He turned his attention back to the two broken forms on the ground and knelt down, turning one on the back.

And jumped as soon he saw the face. The eyes were milky white, the skin more gray than brown- and there were four flower-like flaps poking out of his mouth. "Fuck!" The captain hissed.

"He said those men attacked him", Mercer explained in a blank tone, "One held him down, the other opened his mouth and pulled _this_", he held his closed fist towards him, "Out and tried to force-feed it to him. I stopped them." He stretched his fingers, showing what looked like a large crushed spider. But...it was _wrong. _Too many legs, no joints, and no real body. Chris still recognized it. "Las Plagas", he snarled.

"Plagas?" Alex cocked his head. "2004. Kennedy encountered them while saving the President's daughter."

"Exactly", Chris growled, then turned to Sheva. "So we really have a situation here."

"What is Plagas?" The woman demanded to know.

"It's a parasite, infects a human host to turn them into mindless husks", Redfield explained quickly. "Chop off their head, and the fully grown parasite will replace it, grow out of the body as time passes. Young parasites are less resistant. Enough physical force will kill them." His eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid a lot of the people down there are infected. But usually, they aren't that docile."

"Maybe it a different version", the woman suggested, unlatching the safety of her handgun. She glanced at the Wiseman. "How did you know?"

Alex scowled. "There's a commotion out there", he growled, already stalking back towards the door. Maybe that was his way of answering, or maybe he just didn't bother with social norms. Chris paused, hearing faint voices through the thin walls. They should better check it out, though he paused just long enough to tell Sheva to tell the man to run and hide.

Just as they made their way out into the alley, several more infected suddenly stormed towards them, shouting at them and brandishing a variety of melee weapons. That too was different, Plagas hosts usually didn't retain much of their intelligence.

Alex scoffed and charged them head-first, slamming his shoulder into the first guy.

The guy was thrown back, crashing into a wall and didn't move anymore. The next guy tried to make a grab, Mercer was faster, spinning around and kicking this one in a scythe-like motion. His head just flew off, leaving the body to crumble into the dirt. Another guy went down from a sharp jab with his elbow (Chris swore it went right _through_ him). By then, he and Sheva had enough brain to aim their freshly acquired handguns at the mob and just open fire, picking off three more by the time Alex finished number four with a brutal stomp. He wasn't even winded as he calmly tapped his earpiece and contacted their pilot to give him the update. Population was hostile, lethal force was needed. Orders remained the same. Thanks, over and out.

While this alley was deadly silent, the commotion hadn't lessened. It only grew louder. Alex cocked his head, teeth bared. "Fisher", he grit out. "They got him."

"How do you know?!" Sheva snapped, obviously somewhat frazzled by the events.

"I don't think that's necessary to know", Chris interrupted. "C'mon, we have to help him!" His tone left no room for arguments, and they made their way into a derelict building just off the market place, where hundreds of infected were crowded. At the center was a tall scaffold, with more infected up there. One was holding a megaphone, yelling something and agitating the crowd. Two were holding Fisher, who was swearing at them. Behind Fisher was a giant holding an equally large ax.

"They're going to kill him", Sheva gasped. "We have to-"

"They'll kill us", Chris bit out. He wanted to help. He didn't want more of his men die, but he knew that the crowd out there were too many for them. They would never get out of this alive, and they still needed Irving. He paused, head snapping to the side. "Where's Mercer?"

"...Out there", Sheva deadpanned after a second. "I don't think he heard you."

Chris swore, watching helplessly as Mercer made his way into the middle of the place, head craned back so he could look the agitator into the eye.

And then there were the _tentacles_. Rushing over Mercer's body in frantic coils, they blurred his form out of sight for a brief moment. Just long enough to trigger all sorts of PTSD in Chris, before all of them receded at once. Alex's outfit had changed in an instant- from a black uniform to a pair of faded jeans, dress shoes, dress shirt hidden under a gray hoodie and topped with a grungy leather jacket.

His arms still remained a mass of tentacles, though those weren't moving anymore. Orange biolumniscent spots decorated the area around his shoulders, and four machete-like talons the length of Sheva's lower legs were now pasted to the end of his paws.

He flicked them backwards, and five guys on either side of him simply fell apart in pieces.  
Without missing a beat, he kicked off the ground and jumped- no, _rocketed_\- up there with enough force to completely shatter the scaffold and send all of them flailing to the ground. Mercer changed trajectory in mid-air, shooting towards Fisher and just grabbing his body, then changing trajectory _again_ to crash into the roof of the building Chris and Sheva were hiding in, before he catapulted himself back off again, leaving Fisher behind. The continued punishment was too much for the roof's structure and a part of it collapsed, dropping their informant into their midst, though Chris could just stare at what Mercer was doing.

His body curled up and he thrust himself downwards, right back into the crowd. They couldn't see the impact beyond the fountain of blood and body chunks. He only noticed the infected screaming, diving to the sides, swinging their machetes and trying to kill the thing in their midst. A cluster of two-story tall spikes simply erupted beneath a group further to the left, turning them into minced meat in an instant before the spikes retreated again. The ax-wielding guy charged, and Mercer easily rolled to the side, arms bristling as one changed shape again to turn into a blade the size its owner. Mercer swung it wide, lopping off the guy's head before he spun around and delivered a brutal palm thrust with his free claw to obliterate the guy's chest cavity. Alex didn't watch him fall, just reeled back as the blade shivered and turned into a whip-like tentacle. As he pivoted on heel, the whip lengthened to slice through the crowd, sending hundreds of bodies hitting the ground within a half circle at a distance of easily thirty meters.

Chris and Sheva were just staring, not blinking, even as the last corpse hit the bloodied floor not even ten seconds later. The whole thing had maybe taken one and a half minute, and _nothing_ remained alive in the town square.

"Holy fuck", Fisher grunted as he stumbled to his feet. Chris felt his mouth go dry, but he wholly agreed with the sentiment. Holy Hell, there had been at least a hundred people, maybe more- and Mercer had simply killed all of them and didn't even look worse for wear. He was standing completely motionless in the middle of the carnage, then, like a robot, his head snapped up and turned into their direction. The next second, he jumped off the ground and vanished from their line of sight, only to drop through the hole in the roof the very next moment with an audible _crack_ and the shriek of metal on metal.

Chris did the only thing appropriate when facing a BOW. He shot him in the head.

* * *

Frankly speaking, Chris expected a reaction more akin to a snarl, a growl, or downright dismemberment. What he didn't expected but got, was a long-suffering sigh and a pair of arched eyebrows.

"Feeling better?" Chris inhaled sharply, staring at the singular eye that was watching him. The other was momentarily a bloody mess, but it was quickly knitting shut and healed back together. They were lucid and far more human than the eyes of any other BOW he encountered. Well, granted, those were usually giant and bulbous and not where eyes should be, but the BOW watching him currently looked perfectly human, if one ignored the giant talons that made up his arms.

"Uh", he managed to say, which was impressive given the reaction of both Sheva and Fisher were more dying animal noises. His brain actually managed to focus for a moment. "You're a BOW?" He all but blurted.

Mercer inclined his head. "Technically yes. However", he scoffed and crossed his arms. "Seeing as your definition of a Bio Organic Weapons includes mutated animals, and human-based abominations that lack mental capacity or basic symmetry and that also sport giant obvious weak spots, I'd say it is very insulting. It's more correct to call me a _Runner_."

Yeah, he could guess that. The other monsters they had encountered were just pretty tough, and asides from crippling deformities never had much to go for them. But Mercer- he was not only still lucid, but he was also extremely fast, strong and durable. And obviously had shapeshifting as part of his mutation too- and not only limbs into weapons that worked both ways, he realized a moment later as the claws turned back into normal human arms, but also apparently clothes. Even if those clothes didn't look any less conspicuous than the black uniform had.

Chris swallowed. "Shit, could all infected do that in Manhattan?" Because that must have been where he got his mutations.

"Only one", was the reply. "And I personally chopped off its head and burnt it to ashes. The others were more like what you usually encounter."

"That's", Chris swallowed. _Good to hear_, he wanted to say. Because, quite frankly, this was downright _terrifying_. BOWs that look, act and talk like normal people, but weren't, were something he didn't even want to think about. But now he did, and it made him realize that the big guy, Grayson, must have been the Blackwatch version of a Nemesis, and that meant that Blackwatch had far more success on their end with the virus than Umbrella ever managed.

Maybe that was the whole reason Cross wanted to work with the BSAA, to even the odds?

Mercer cleared his throat. "Area's clear now, by the way. I thought we had a job to do?"

"Oh Hell no", Sheva bit out. "What was that just now? Why did you just blatantly kill all those guys out there?"

"The mission was to figure out if there was an infection going on", Mercer explained. "If not, then the primary objective was to locate Irving. If yes, then it would automatically become a Search and Destroy Mission. I just followed my orders."

Chris could have groaned. "Great. Now I get why Cross had you going with me. Blackwatch's own Bioweapon to even the odds, huh?"

"Redfield?" Sheva asked incredulously.

"Think of it", he waved his hand towards the carnage outside. "Hundreds of violent infected dead. Our informant still alive. And if this was just warming up, then our chances of survival and success just skyrocketed." He draped his palm down his face. "We have to meet Alpha Team and get Irving. Let's go."

* * *

Chris could feel Sheva's eyes on his back, even though she was staring holes into Mercer's. The man was walking in front of them, obviously oblivious to her trying to murder him with looks. They had left Fisher behind, with the remark that he should get out of Kijuju as quickly as possible, and were now heading to the meeting area with Alpha Team. Whenever one of the infected reared their heads, either he or Sheva summarily blew them to Hell, or Mercer made a single flick of his wrist and pulverized them.

"It's a good thing he's on our side", he said to no-one in particular. Pretty sure he was talking to himself, to ensure himself they could trust him.

"Our goals align", Sheva acknowledged. "And he was patient with us, despite you shooting him in the face." She grimaced. "Actions speak more than words, so I guess I can trust him."

"I doubt we have much choice, given that he saved our asses."

That was when their communicators started screeching, and DeChant's voice was yelling. _"Enemy engaged! Enemy engaged! Fuck!"_

The ground cracked as Mercer sped off without a word, whipping up clouds of dust and eating up distance even before the other two realized the implications. Sheva and Chris chased after him, albeit a lot slower- but they could hear over their radios what was going on.

"_Holy fuck! What is that thing?!"_

"_Nothing is working!"_

"_Kirk! We need backup-?!"_

Then the voices were drowned out in a loud crack and startled yells.

"_What the fuck?! Where did that thing come from?!"_

"_Is it...is it fighting this thing?!"_

Chris grit his teeth, panting from his prolonged sprint. "Do not engage either of them. Dig in and wait for us! I repeat, dig in and wait for us!"

"_What are you-?!"_

The connection was cut, however, and the two forced themselves to move even faster. Didn't get very far though, when _something_ crashed through a building nearby and turned it to rubble. Chris couldn't react as fast as Sheva did, who pulled him back with all her strength to avoid being crushed by debris. Snarls and shrieks came from the dust cloud, and the next second, something with black tentacles shot out and tried to escape over the roof. Something with equally black tentacles gave chase, and both vanished from sight the next second.

At least they also created a shortcut, which Chris and Sheva gladly used.

Out of breath, they finally arrived at Alpha Team's position inside a warehouse- and froze. The ground was dug up, the closest wall had collapsed, half of them were injured, but luckily, there were no bodies.

"Redfield?!" DeChant snapped as the two of them stopped, panting. "What the fuck?!"

"You have to be a bit more specific", the captain gasped. "Between half the Ghetto being infected by a parasite and our Blackwatch contact being a BOW himself, I couldn't really keep track of things."

"Blackwatch contact?" DeChant swallowed his next words and switched to swearwords when the opposite wall collapsed under the impact of two bodies. One was flung out from the force, slamming hard into the ground. It looked as if tentacles had formed a vaguely human form, but Chris could see the tortured expression of a person inside the mass, and he saw orange glowing pustules that seemed to be the source of the tentacles. It shrieked at them, tendrils whipping through the air, but half of them didn't even move correctly anymore.

A deep rumble answered it, and it whirled towards the dust cloud with what could have been fear.  
A shockwave ripped the cloud apart, revealing Mercer's pale form beneath. There was a wide unhinged grin on his face, and his claws shone ominously in the half light. His own tentacles squirmed over his body in anticipation, making him look almost more monstrous than the other thing. He cocked his head, eying the tentacled thing with narrowed eyes. "I won't say this hadn't been fun, and it had been, but how about we end this now?"

The thing shrieked, was about to move, when Alex darted to the front and impacted into the creature with enough force to shove it several yards away from Team Alpha and crushing it into the remaining wall, while his claws dug through its shoulder joints. It screamed and thrashed, but those screams quickly grew more frantic as tentacles started sprouting from Mercer's back and shoulders and slammed into its body. More black tentacles quickly spread from the impact points, enveloping the entire thing within seconds. There was a hollow _crack_ as its body snapped and contorted, and was completely dragged into Mercer's form, even as the creature continued screeching in agony.

Chris really shouldn't have watched, but he was unable to look away. It seemed to take an eternity until the thing was completely absorbed by the Manhattan BOW, even though it took maybe three seconds at most. Mercer's body was bristling, even when the absorption process had visibly ended, and the quaking tendrils started to concentrate around his arms and shoulders. Then the claws vanished, replacing them for simple three-fingered limbs. Alex cocked his head curiously, and flicked his wrists, suddenly unraveling his arms into three pairs of powerful tentacles. He seemed a bit surprised, manipulated one of them and grabbed a large piece of wall off the ground to crush it to dust.

"Huh" The tentacles melted back into human arms, and Mercer stared somewhat mesmerized at his fingers. "Interesting."

"The fuck?!" DeChant snapped, drawing his attention, even though his men all hissed at him not to. "What the Hell are you?!"

Pale blue eyes focused on the man, who instantly shrunk back. But there was no maliciousness in them, more like the sudden realization that there had been people present. His answer was delivered rather deadpan, with no real heat behind the words. "Technically the same as that thing had been. Only a lot more under control...Captain DeChant, correct?" The captain blinked in confusion. "Alex Mercer, Blackwatch Wisemen. Captain Cross should have informed you of my presence."

DeChant got a bit more color back into his face. "He neglected to mention you're one of these freaks."

"Words hurt, you know." He shook his head briefly with a mock injured expression. "Thought you'd be a bit more grateful that I saved your asses. But I guess that's too much to ask for."

Chris grimaced, stepping to the front to act as a new target for his attention. "I'm pretty sure as soon they are over their shock, they'll be grateful. I know _I _am thankful you stopped this thing before it could kill them." He rubbed the back of his neck, slowly approaching his appointed partner. "What _was_ that thing anyways? It didn't look like any stage of the Plagas I've heard about. Those are more bug legs, not tentacles."

"It wasn't", was the reply. "Plagas is a parasite that attaches to a host and uses his mass to fuel its own growth, while also using his flesh as a shield against the outside." He crossed his arms. "This thing just now was a lot more like what I've seen in Manhattan, or what you should know of Raccoon. This was a human infected with a virus."

Chris felt his face drain of color, and Sheva's expression turned alarmed. "A virus- was this the _Uroboros_?"

"Most likely. Wouldn't be that much of a jump to think of. Fisher told us that the shit was around, and there is actually a virus that is not Plagas. I think it fits." Chris furrowed his brows. "Would have been nice if we had something to send back to HQ for analysis. But you..." He eyed Mercer. "What have you done with it anyways?"

The only reply he got was a shrug. "Lunch."

* * *

Why was he even surprised, Chris wondered. He had seen and experienced a whole load of bullshit already, had heard stories from his baby sister, from Kennedy. BOWs eating other BOWs wasn't that uncommon.

And the only other infected that retained their human intellect for longer than it took them to kill them had been Wesker, and that asshole never shared anything with the class, so Chris couldn't know whether he too ate his own failed projects or not. Mercer didn't seem to be too bothered by what he'd done, and anyways, that was probably the best course of action to remove potentially infectious matter from the environment.

He fought back the shudder that tried to grab hold of him. Sheva looked pretty pale too, though there was a glint in her eyes, and she glanced between him and the spot the tentacled infected had been.

"How do you know it was Uroboros?"

"I don't know. I suspect it was Uroboros", Mercer corrected.

Sheva huffed out, crossing her arms. "Okay, smart guy. Why do you suspect it's Uroboros?"

He considered it for a moment. "Mostly because I think it's too much of a coincidence to hear about it here, and then run into a non-parasitic infection." He jabbed at Chris. "Much like he already said", he toed a bit of rubble on the ground. "Secondly, it did taste a lot like the infected in Manhattan." He paused, obviously realizing what he just said. "Well, not really 'taste', but I guess you know what I mean."

From the way half the guys nearby had turned green, Chris guessed they did. He paused, frowning. "Irving, where is he?"

DeChant groaned. "Got away when this thing attacked and pinned us down. When your...friend appeared, we weren't really in the position to pursue." He sighed again in annoyance, gesturing to his injured men. "And now half my team's out of commission."

"Then get back to HQ", Sheva suggested. "We will look for Irving."

DeChant was eying her, then Chris, then Mercer. "Yeah, guess we'll do that. Actually, I think a small group has a better chance at getting through than us many dudes." He threw the pale man a pointed glare. "Especially when they got firepower. Anyways." He pulled a data drive from his pouch and handed it over. "Data regarding the deal. There's a car pool not far from here, and in one of our vehicles should be our computer." He grimaced briefly."We won't go any further, and with you here, I can guess the way back's secure?"

Chris took the drive, frowning to himself. "Thanks, captain." He saluted him. "And you're right. Just try not to step into body parts on your way out. Fisher should be there waiting for you." He was about to leave, when he stopped. "Actually, don't you think it's weird?"

"Weird? What?" A lot of things, actually, but there was one he could think of first and foremost.

"That this thing attacked you the moment you had Irving in your sights."

"Yeah", DeChant furrowed his brows. "You think somebody blabbed?"

"Or Irving has some serious backup", Sheva suggested. "In that case, however, we can suspect he actually _has_ access to these biological weapons, which is very bad."

Translation: They had to hurry then. Chris held back a sigh. When was it ever easy?

They bade farewell to the captain and headed deeper into the now thoroughly ventilated complex. Some walls were missing entirely, and others were badly damaged.

"Not my fault", Alex commented, "This thing only stayed in one piece when trying to defend itself. Even I can't punch a bunch of tentacles."

"I didn't ask", Chris replied. But that was interesting, obviously, despite being made of tentacles, this thing had no ability to fight if not in its main body. That _had_ applications.

"You seen any weak points?"

"Those orange joints in-between the tendrils. They looked like they were the main cores that held the entire thing together."

"Soo...obvious weak points, then?"

"I have no fucking clue why Redlight or Blacklight don't have any", Mercer grumbled. "All the other strains seem to." He furrowed his brows, then muttered to himself. "Possibly because Blackwatch actually knew what they were doing. Umbrella had no idea how to design viral weapons without obvious glowing bull's eyes."

Chris snorted amused, and Sheva just blinked blankly. "You just used physical force to end them?"

"Yeah. No need to target when spray 'n pray worked just as well", Mercer shrugged. "Grenade launchers worked best, by the way."

"Gotta remember that and request heavier weaponry next time", Redfield suggested. "But c'mon." They headed up a few stairs and ended up in a vehicle pool full of Humvee. Chris peered into every single one, until he found one that had a large suitcase sitting in its back. "Got it", he declared and pulled the door ajar. He opened the suitcase, which was actually Alpha Team's field computer. It switched on without a hitch, and began connecting to the BSAA satellites. He placed the drive into its slot, and the data began transferring. "Chris Redfield to HQ, do you copy?"

"_This is HQ"_, was the choppy reply. _"Excellent work out there with DeChant, it's good they'll be coming home. And we'll being analyzing the data immediately."_

"The whole town's gone to Hell", Chris growled. "They're infected by a similar parasite as those Ganado Kennedy encountered in 2004, but they retain more intelligence." He scowled into his headpiece. "There's also something new. Fisher called it 'Uroboros', and our Wiseman contact confirmed that it isn't the parasite."

"Because of this", Sheva added into her own earpiece, "We don't have much in the ways of transport anymore, the chopper should be getting back to your place soon."

"_The mission doesn't change, though. Capturing Irving is your top priority, and we believe he fled to the mines on the other side of the train station."_

"Wait", Chris snapped. "We're only three people, and you want us to go in there?"

"_You got ZEUS on your side, no? Just send it in first and let it clear out the rabble."_

ZEUS? What the- Chris swallowed his words when he noticed Mercer's dark expression.

"That's your answer to the problem?" He growled into his earpiece. "'Send in ZEUS'? What? You think I'm a Goddamn cheatcode?"

"_Your destructive potential is best to be used in such situations. And Irving can not get away. Redfield, make sure you take him captive. Don't let ZEUS run wild. Any other situations are unacceptable. Over and out."_

The communication was cut. Sheva spat out. "This is insane!"

"They're treating us like we're expendable", Chris grunted. "Same as with Alpha Team. We're just numbers on a board."

"Just tools to be used", Mercer added. "Don't think that they care for you."

"They seemed to do so for you", Sheva pointed out.

"They don't. They won't care if I live or die. If I live, fine, then they can send me on another recon mission to the ass end of nowhere. If I die, great, 'cause then they won't have to deal with me. I stay alive mostly to spite them. And to kill a whole bunch of assholes." He shook his head. "One day I'll find someone who was paid by them to create Bioweapons just so they'll have a job to do."

Like the arsonist firefighter, huh? Chris groaned. "I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happens. Damn, when I thought of the idea of having something like the BSAA, I was thinking more along the lines of 'no more secrets'."

"That's the problem when dealing with the government. They always promise you the best, and the next moment they do exactly what their predecessors did. There are only a few guys who actually _try_ to make a difference."

"Like Cross?"

"Exactly." Mercer scoffed and turned to the exit. "We still got a long way to go."

* * *

The way across the city was mostly uneventful. They took down a few more infected, and Chris finally figured out how to deal with them quickest: Since the parasite inside of them was still weak, it couldn't control a dead body. So Chris usually made short process by shooting them in one leg to make them stumble, following it up with a brutal uppercut. Most guys died from the violent impact, if not, he finished them with a stomp to the throat. That, of course, didn't work with the guys that were host to older parasites. If they encountered those, and they weren't easily distinguished from normal infected, it didn't matter whether they killed the hosts. The parasite would erupt in a centipede-like form from their throats and manipulate the body to attack them. Sheva had started using a machete against those guys since she was faster and smaller than Chris, chopping off the large bugs where they connected. Stomping on them, or shooting them then took them down.

Mercer had less problems, using so much violence against any type of infected that their bodies turned into bloody chunks. Too little for the parasite to heal together or manipulate- if they even survived the blow that was.

Chris had to admit, it could have been worse. It wasn't safe, far from it, but it had some appeal. Well, less the bloody mess that remained from most of the infected, but at least they had a very durable and spiky wall between themselves and the infected. That was until they heard something screech from above. Out of instinct, Chris motioned for them to get under cover, which both his partners did without questioning. For a brief moment he wondered whether he imagined it, but then they heard the flapping of wings and several shadows rushed over them.

"What the Hell?" Sheva hissed, clutching the hunting rifle she found in a weapon store harder.

"No idea", Chris muttered, "Most animal-based weapons at least _look_ like normal animals, if larger."

"If they are swarming up there, they'll be an obstacle", Alex observed.

"Can you take them down?"

He grinned in reply. "Watch." He ducked backwards, sneaking out of their hideout without drawing attention. As soon he was some distance away, he leapt off the ground to land on the roof of a building, one arm turning into the clawed tentacle. Before these flying things managed to react, the talon had crossed the distance and shredded the first of them to bloody bits. The others screeched and dove at their attacker, and it was then that Chris realized that these things were _big_, half Sheva's size maybe. They had four wings to stay airborne, and a long and massive tail. Alex didn't care much, just catapulted himself off the building to curl himself up and suddenly alter his trajectory to shoot like a cannonball into the closest of the things, utterly splattering it upon contact. And still, despite the immense momentum, he easily stopped his motion and rolled to the side, still in mid-air, and threw his talon out again to slice through the next of the winged things. Three were left, and Chris saw Sheva's jaw go slack at the sight.

He didn't blame her, it looked really amazing. Mercer hit the roof he'd been on and bounced off again immediately, crumbling the whole building beneath. He spun in mid-air, giving off another burst of air to dropkick the next thing. As it dropped, he did so too for about half a second before his descent slowed and he simply glided across the buildings like there was no gravity for him, setting down almost gently next to a derelict car- which he immediately picked up and threw at the second-last flying thing.

Now alone, the last thing obviously noticed it had no chance and was about to flee, but the Manhattan Runner leapt after it almost lazily, grabbing it out of the air with little more than a thought. It screeched and flapped its wings, so he easily restricted it with a single talon that wrapped around its body, then returned to the two humans with his price.

"Ugly bastard, isn't it?" Sheva muttered once he stopped in front of them.

"Like a bulldog had a child with a bat, and a worm crawled up its ass and died", Chris confirmed. The thing screeched again, trying to slap its heavy insect-like tail at them. Alex restrained it with a single hand, then tore the tail right off. Its shrieks took a distinct agonized tone, almost enough to drive a shard of pity through Chris's brain, but Mercer seemed to be puzzled by it. Then, like a machine suddenly setting into motion, he tensed the hold he had on the thing and it dropped to the ground in neat parts.

"What the Hell was that?" Sheva eventually asked, staring mesmerized at the mess at their feet.

"Best guess? Someone played mix 'n match with animals and glued everything together with the parasite", Chris mentioned, pointing to the clearly bug-like remains on the floor.

"Why?"

"Probably to sell them as weapons", Mercer assumed. "This Irving is a weapon trafficker, right?"

"Yes, but that doesn't make any sense", Sheva furrowed her brows. "I don't think Irving has the funding _or_ the mental capabilities to do something like that."

"He's just the figurehead, you say?" Chris rubbed his chin. "Like a magician, then. One hand distracts the audience while the other does the trick."

"We gotta find the magician then."

"Exactly."

They set into motion again, carefully sneaking through side streets, alleys and derelict buildings to avoid needless confrontations that could slow them down. Chris figured that their time loss wouldn't be too great, but still. They had a lot of ammunition left, but any shot, any dying scream attracted more infected. And they had to watch the sky now too, because of these bat things.

"Say", Chris began, "HQ called you 'ZEUS'. That your codename?"

"Had been. In Manhattan", Mercer confirmed.

"And they called you an 'it'", Sheva added.

"Can't blame them. I'm not exactly human anymore", he said simply. He stopped and shot his barbed tentacle to the front, ripping another infected to pieces. "I am a monster. But I know what's right and what's wrong, so I guess it makes me a better person than most humans out there."

"Hey, you could have left our asses out to dry, and you wouldn't have needed to help DeChant and the others", Chris said earnestly, "So you're not the bad guy here." He scoffed briefly. "Certainly better than our bosses."

Sheva shrugged. "I judge people by action anyways, and not by what I am told to believe." She slapped her hands on either partner's shoulder. "You guys are okay, I guess. For Americans."

Chris grinned, then kicked down a fragile-looking fence that opened into a large open space. There were some derelict cars and tires around, and a few birds flew off, but other than that, it was pretty silent.

How was the old cliche? Silent. Too Silent.

There was the roar of an engine, and Chris reacted just in time to shove his human partner down as an infected riding a motor bike came crashing into the courtyard. The long chain he was swinging with lethal precision slammed hard into his ankle and wrapped around it, and the bastard just kicked down the acceleration, dragging the captain with him for several yards. Chris swore under his breath, but then Sheva's gun cracked, and the chain split, Chris rolled over the ground from the brutal momentum until he stopped. He felt dizzy, and his ass burnt, but the next moment there was a disgruntled snarl as one of the cars hit the fucker and crushed him into paste. Alex slammed his fists together, and shifted them back into his lethal foot-long claws.

Five more bikes roared into the yard, racing around them, trying to herd them towards the center of the area. Mercer scoffed, and it sounded disbelieving. "Motorbikes? Since when are Zombies able to drive motorbikes?!"

The first driver collapsed suddenly, and his bike spun to the side as he dropped from the the saddle like a cowboy in a Western Movie. More shots rang out, and before any of them could even act, all of the bike-driving zombies lay in the dust.

Chris blinked, then noticed that Sheva's eyes started glowing as she stared at a spot somewhere over his shoulder. He turned to look, noticing Delta Team approach them. Captain Stone looked pretty smug as he stopped in front of them. "Something to tell the kids, eh? Me, saving the legendary Chris Redfield's ass."

"Thanks Josh", Sheva breathed out, "I owe you one now." She grinned at him, then turned to her partners. "He trained me, taught me everything I know."

"I'm just glad I could help", Stone commented.

"Sir?", one of the men called out, "We should move this inside."

"Yeah, Dave", captain Stone acknowledged. They quickly moved into one of the side buildings that obviously served as a form of hideout for them. The BSAA members closest to Alex jumped, when the tendrils skittered over his arms to turn them back into normal arms.

"It's okay", Chris called out to them. "He's with me. He's cool."

"Strange times make strange bedfellows", Stone commented, and Alex's eyes suddenly lit up.

"I remember you", he said. "You've been in Manhattan."

"You took my grenade launcher", Stone replied. "And shoved it down the throat of that big guy at Columbia University. I'm not complaining, you saved a bunch of the guys I was assigned to that day." He turned to Chris to explain. "I've been on loan from the BSAA to the Marines when shit hit the fan in 2008 in Manhattan, along with a few experts from the other branches. I can only guess the Marines didn't trust Blackwatch a lot, so they wanted a second opinion. But truth to be told, I'm glad to be back here, Manhattan was a lot more dangerous than this place here."

"I already heard things of the sort", the other captain deadpanned. "Thanks for the save."

That's not everything, though. I got something for you", he told him and handed him a memory drive. "This says that Irving is in the mining area, along with some more data. You might want to check it out."

"Thank you, Josh", Sheva told him again. The captain smiled at her again and squeezed her shoulder. "You go get Irving. We'll follow after you once we're done here."

"Be careful out there", Chris implored him. "We nearly lost Alpha Team before."

"We will", the captain acknowledged. "Redfield. Sheva", he glanced at Alex. "Germ."

"Jarhead", the Runner replied with a bow of his head.

Team Delta filtered out of the building, while Chris took his PDA and shoved the memory chip inside. The device came to live quickly and started transferring the data. There were pictures on the drive, and other data. He picked the pictures first- and nearly dropped the PDA in shock.

The face on one picture- the hair was blonde now, not brunette, but the face- "Jill", he breathed. He was back at Spencer's mansion, it was a stormy night, and they already lost their entire team. But he and her were still there, and they were ready to end this. He remembered kicking the door open, remembered facing Wesker. Remembered getting their asses kicked. Remembered Jill tackling the fucker right out of the window and down a cliff.

They never found her body, buried an empty casket into the ground.

"Chris?" He blinked at the voice. Not Jill. Not her. But, _her_. He stared blankly at Sheva. "Are you alright?"

He rolled his tongue over his lips, trying to find his voice. "This picture", he managed to grit out. "It's..." She was dead. They never found her body. It couldn't be her. He grimaced and shook his head. "It's nothing. I just thought I recognized this woman. Let's move out."

He walked to the door, head spinning, though he heard the stage whisper from Sheva to Mercer. "Sure. _Nothing_."

* * *

They had made their way out of the city of Kijuju, and were wandering along the dusty cliff side of the nearby mining camp. So far, they hadn't encountered any infected, or monstrous bats. Shit was going to hit the fan pretty soon, that much Chris knew. Sheva knew it too, the grip on her handgun was turning her knuckles white.

Mercer was making a noise in his throat, his eyes glued to the office building of the mine in front of them. "One human", he muttered. "Inside. Looks like he's standing at the table."

"How do you know?"

"Infrared. I can see through walls."

"Must be him", Sheva noticed. "Irving."

"Good", Chris pointed at Alex. "You take the back entrance. Make sure he doesn't get out through there. Sheva, you with me."

Mercer nodded and jumped off the ground, vanishing from sight so fast as if he had never been there in the first place. Chris and Sheva carefully climbed up the stairs, positioning themselves on either side of the door. She nodded once, and Chris booted the door open, voice rising into a shout.

"FREEZE!"

A rat-like man in a white suit squeaked in panic, jerking back from the table with a loud 'Oh Shit'. He stared at the two agents with wide eyes, though still drew a gun to aim at them. Chris's face was set in a scowl, and his finger tightened around the trigger of his handgun.

"Go on", he growled. "Make my day."

"So you must be Irving", Sheva commented. "Honestly, I expected something _more_."

"Wow", Irving squeaked, but his knees were shaking badly. "Perceptive aren't 'cha?"

"You're just like all the other pieces of shit", Sheva snapped. "Playing all big and mighty, and in the end you are pathetic little lumps of meat."

"Oh, I'm not like them", Irving countered. "I'm a business man with standards."

"Standards, sure. Selling bioweapons to rebels", Chris scoffed and approached him. Shaking like the guy did, he wouldn't manage to hit him even from close up, not even with a bazooka. "Drop the weapon and come along quietly." Irving back off, his gun flitting between the two of them. He had no chance to escape.

Something crashed above them, _hard_, and then the flimsy excuse for a roof collapsed further to their left, sending plumes of dust and debris through the room. Irving squealed, ducking back, and Chris forced himself to take his attention off the worm and towards what was happening when he heard a wild snarl and the crack of gunshots.

Mercer had collapsed the ceiling, but most likely not on his own volition. Not when there was a robed and masked figure along with him, one that was firing restlessly at their adversary. Mercer growled and lunged to the front, the figure ducked and rolled under him, and instantly discarded their handgun in exchange for a sawed-off shotgun. When Mercer spun to face them, the robed guy just blasted his face right off.

Sheva swore, making a move for Irving, while Chris charged the figure. The Manhattan BOW was going to be fine, he noticed, mostly because he was still standing and already healing back up. The robed figure whirled around, and dropped a pair of grenades from their belt, which started hissing. Tear gas, and it was already starting to burn in his eyes and throat. The entire room was filled instantly with the gas, and he heard Sheva grunt through the cloud, seconds before she came flying towards him, colliding with him and sending him back to the ground. He heard the shatter of glass, followed by Irving's pitched laughter. "Suckers!"

Choking and coughing under his breath, he blindly groped for Sheva's arm to drag her back towards the door, then after a hacking fit, tried to pick up his voice. "Alex! We gotta get out of here! Alex!"

Another violent coughing fit wrecked his body, but he still managed to grab his female partner and get her out of the building, seconds before the front wall collapsed when a still blinded and frantic BOW crashed through and smacked hard into the ground below.

Chris wiped the tears from his burning eyes and leaned over the rail, to try and see what was going on. "Alex?" He gasped, "Hey, you okay?!"

The only reply was some aggressive hacking, but the black figure down there was luckily still moving and attempting to climb to his feet. By the time Chris's eyes stopped burning and his lungs could finally breathe again, Mercer started to speak, though it were a string of curses that weren't even English most of the time. Chris could hear a "Fucking tear gas!", followed by another bout of cussing.

"You okay?" Sheva's voice sounded still breathless, but she too was already back on her feet. Her eyes were still puffy from the tear gas, though Chris guess he wasn't looking any better. "What _was_ that just now?"

"That was us getting put on our asses like a team of rookies", the captain groaned. "Irving's probably gone and so is our mysterious attacker." He coughed again, then turned at the sound of approaching footsteps. They sounded angry, and were enough to shake the metal stairs. "What was up with you?" He asked the disgruntled Runner.

"Bitch shot me in the face", Mercer growled. "Had to regrow it." He swore under his breath. "I hate it when people go for my eyes."

"Word", Chris sighed. He would have been dead after a shot like this, so the other deserved at least some credit. He headed back into the now thoroughly damaged office, followed by Sheva. "Great."

"Who was that?" Sheva questioned, "I didn't know Irving had a partner. I thought his slimy exterior repels other people."

"No idea", Chris replied, then went back to the table Irving had been at. "Maybe we'll find something here." A file folder sat on the wooden surface, and he flipped it open. There were pictures of what looked like an industrial complex, along with a map that had a few locations marked.

"That looks like the oil field", Sheva pointed out in surprise. "That's in the marshlands."

"Guess we have our new headings then." Chris paused when he noticed their third team member wasn't nearby. "Uh, Alex? Is there a reason you're not in here?"

"I got keen senses. Place still stinks of the tear gas and that really throws me out of my game."

Keen senses... "Can you try to follow his trail?"

"I _could_, but then that bitch took off my face and filled what was left with this shit", he growled. "I'd be lucky if I can smell anything else other than tear gas at the end of the day."

Sheva winced sympathetically, while Chris just tapped his earpiece. "Delta Team, Chris here", he sighed. "We located Irving, but he got away."

"_Do you know where he went?"_ Stone asked after a startled moment. _"And how did it even happen?"_

"We think he's going to the oil field. Also, he had support that took us by surprise."

"_We'll send someone after him. You get out of there and rejoin us."_

"Roger that." He cut the connection, then noticed Sheva glaring at the outside. "Sheva?"

"Whoever that had been who made a fool out of us, they brought along some friends." She motioned to the outside, where more infected were gathering. "And I guess they're waiting until it's open season."

"I'd say they've waited enough", Chris commented, grabbing his combat rifle. "And I kind of have to work off my frustration." He slapped in a fresh clip. "Let's go everyone, we have to get through here to get into the marshlands."

* * *

The sun was dipping lower and lower, the heat began to become unbearable. The trek had become more troublesome too, the infected were of a stronger kind, and thirst was starting to get to Chris and Sheva. Chris also swore he was getting a sunstroke, and the headache that heralded it was settling between his eyes. Despite that, they decided to stop only once to rest, eat and drink something, and that had been when a truck raced towards them, blocked the narrow street completely, and spewed a singular, much larger variation of those bat things at them. Luckily, they had Mercer, who wasn't affected by heat or thirst, and who was more than suited to kill those things. To do this, he had employed a new transformation Chris hadn't seen before, one that bulked up his arms and legs instantly so _his_ biceps looked small in comparison. Mercer just jumped right in front of the thing and only slammed his fists together, not even aiming at the thing. The punch still connected, as the move dislocated so much air it was like a sledgehammer and broke the thing's fragile wings. As it smacked into the hard ground, Mercer simply walked over, snapped its neck and absorbed it whole.

He also kicked the truck into the ravine below more as an afterthought, while Chris and Sheva sat on a pair of boulders and shared their meager supplies equally between them like they were having a picnic.

It was nice, Chris figured, despite being stuck in yet another Zombie apocalypse. And then a Humvee driven by Delta Team's sniper, Dave Johnson, arrived and picked them up, so they didn't have to walk either anymore. The truck dipped ominously when Mercer got on, but neither of them commented on it.

Johnson started driving, and the mining area vanished behind them. Chris leaned back and sighed deeply. And for a while it was nice just to hear the wind and the crunch of the ground beneath.

"I heard what happened with Irving", Johnson eventually commented. "Tough break."

Sheva shrugged. "There will be other possibilities." She paused, her eyes widening in what was a definite 'Oh shit I forgot' expression. "Sheva to HQ, do you copy?"

"_This is headquarters, what is your situation?"_

"There is a high probability that Irving is on his way to the oil fields in the marshlands. We're currently on our way to rejoin Delta Team, then we will head there."

"_Understood"_

"We got guests", Alex commented simply, pointing at a few dust clouds that came closer _fast_. "More motorbike zombies", he added a moment later. "And we got two mounted machine guns." He glanced at them. "You want to do the honors?"

"Oh Hell yes", the captain grinned, then climbed up to the upper turret. Sheva took the opportunity to cover her partner, aiming the lower and larger turret at every guy who thought they could try to take them from the side Chris wasn't aiming. To Chris, it was like he was shooting clay pigeons.

His grin just widened. "Oh Hell yes! I always wanted to be Mad Max!"

"Careful what you wish for", Sheva commented. "Also, there is a truck loaded with a bunch of asshats coming over at three 'o-" A clawed tentacle slashed through the truck's engine and blew it up in a great ball of fire. "Never mind 'o clock", Sheva quickly corrected herself. "One for Mercer."

"That was kind of surprising", the BOW admitted. "Usually, they shouldn't blow up like that. Unless they were stupid enough to store volatile contents in them." Another truck turned into a ball of fire, and Sheva casually dangled the pin of a hand grenade from her finger.

"I guess they did, huh? How stupid can they be?"

"Best guess: A lot", Johnson commented simply, taking a wide curve to avoid a boulder in their way. Then the Humvee's radio chimed.

"_This is Captain Stone"_, the voice crackled from the speaker._ "We just received message from HQ. They finally figured shit out because of the data from DeChant. He's sending you his thanks, by the way Redfield. So anyways, the people of Kijuju are infected by the Las Plagas parasite from 2004, and are widely referred to as 'Majini'. Though I guess calling them zombies or assholes works too."_

"Quick question", Chris picked up his voice, "What does this have to do with the Uroboros?"

"_They didn't tell"_, Stone replied with a deep sigh.

"Then I guess we'll find that one out from Irving."

"About that", Alex piped up. "We see that idiot next time, can you pretend you didn't hear HQ's orders?"

"What?" Chris blinked at him confused, not noticing the motorbike-bound infected that suddenly dropped dead with a whoop of Sheva. "The one about getting him in alive?"

"About that. I'm good at getting information out of people", Alex grimaced briefly. "They can't hide anything from me. The down-trade is that they, well, don't survive the process."

Chris shrugged. "Hey, at this point I'm all for kicking these idiots in the balls if it gets the job done. Next time we see Irving, and we aren't stopped by this mysterious guy again, you can do your thing."

"Let's hope we find him then", Sheva threw in. "Also, that was the last of these guys. I hope." She turned to Mercer. "Yo, you seeing any more?"

"All dead", was the reply.

"Good, because as nice as this is-", she pointed at the now dark night sky, "But I can't exactly shoot zombies in the dark. And I'm kind of tired too."

"Yeah, we're still going to drive for at little while longer", Johnson told them. "You can get a little shut-eye, if you want to."

"Guess that wouldn't be too bad", Chris yawned, then turned to Mercer. "You too?"

"I don't sleep", was the answer. "You get a nap, and I'll keep an eye out."

"Sounds good to me", Sheva shrugged, then instantly rolled up on the truck bed. Chris figured that maybe a little sleep wouldn't hurt and followed her lead.

* * *

Sleep, as always, didn't come easy, and Chris slept with one eye open anyways. But even like that he noticed that something was off, and attempting to continue to nap didn't work anymore. What it was that woke him were his own primal instincts, he realized once he was fully awake. Mercer was perched at his position, but there was a distinct tension in his body, and Chris didn't just mean the small tendrils that skittered over his shoulders.

"What's going on?" Chris asked with a worried tone.

"Death", Mercer replied. "The wind changed and all I can smell is death now." He bared his teeth as Chris spotted the first pair of bodies. Both were from Delta Team, and he felt his throat close up. He heard Johnson swear under his breath, and saw Sheva take on a worried expression. "Those men- those men were the best I knew. What could have done this?"

Chris didn't know, but he heard the driver swallow heavily more than once.

The vehicle eventually stopped, and Johnson was the first one out to hurry over to the body of one of his team members. Chris and Sheva stayed a few feet away to give him some space and keep an eye on him. Mercer didn't seem to realize that they were trying to be supportive, was stalking around the Humvee instead. His eyes kept darting around, as if he was looking for something.

The ground shook and he instantly stopped his motion, his head snapping into the direction of the town square. Chris knew better than to look everywhere else, because if he was looking like _that_, he definitely had picked up the threat.

There was a hollow crack, and a car came flying towards them. Sheva just yelled for them to look out, when Alex leapt upwards and intercepted the projectile, grabbing it out of the air and chucking it back to where it came from, and a loud bellowing answered his action, seconds before a two-story-tall giant peeled its way out of the darkness, roaring, definitely a Plagas creature, much like this 'El Gigante' Kennedy had spoken of. Johnson scrambled backwards the moment Alex shot to the front, putting himself between the soldier and the giant. Chris felt his blood start to boil when he noticed the BSAA corpses hung from the thing's belt like they were fucking trophies.

And then Mercer just lost it. He roared at the giant like he was just any other infected, seconds before his body erupted into tendrils that flattened and hardened into a black spiky shell. His talons came back out again, and when he jumped, the floor cratered from the sheer force. The giant reeled back, trying to grab him, but despite the shell slowing him down immensely, Mercer was still a lot faster than the thing. His claws slammed into the giant's chest, but weren't long or strong enough to actually cause some damage, so the giant whirled and tried to crush the much smaller BOW, but instead, its hand broke against the shell.

Alex let go though, and dove behind the giant, one claw turning into his massive sword again. He rushed the creature, his sword slicing through both its tendons and sending it stumbling to the ground. Chris was about to put a few bullets into its ugly face, when Sheva stopped him just seconds before a crossbow bolt dug into the dusty ground.

"Bastards", Johnson spat, whipping his sniper rifle around to take down one of the Majini who had followed the giant.

"Mercer got this!" Sheva snapped, just in time for the armored Runner to smash his body into his foe, surely shattering something. The larger creature reeled, and the scars on its body suddenly split open, bleeding countless insect legs with sharp claws. "We'll take care of the small guys!" She fired twice, putting down another infected.

Chris shot down another few infected in the background, noticing that Mercer burst to the front, dodging a clumsy grab and leaping upwards to cling to the giant's head. His sword and claw melted into those ridiculously muscled arms again. The giant roared, tried to grab the Runner, who just ducked down and forced a set of giant spears out of his own armor to impale the fucker's arms. It bellowed in pain, and obviously couldn't pull them back anymore. Mercer snarled and grabbed the giant's face, digging his thumbs into the corners of its mouth to pry its jaw open.

"Open wide", Alex growled, though his voice was twisted through his armor. Then he slammed his arm deep into his foe's gullet.

Giant black spikes erupted all over the thing's body, ripping its flesh apart with one blow. The giant never collapsed, though, because the spikes instantly melted into tentacles and wrapped around the larger BOW, breaking every last bone in its body as its entire mass was leeched into Mercer's armored form. The soldier's bodies dropped to the ground, just as Mercer hit the floor with his feet first. The impact was clearly noticeable even at a distance and through the soft ground. The Majini that had attempted to creep closer during the distraction all froze at once, and when Mercer turned to face them, they scrambled backwards in what was clearly panic. He charged towards them, grinding those guys he tackled into paste.

"I guess we can keep shooting", Chris deadpanned. "I doubt we need to be careful about him, soo..." He fired at one of the infected, blowing off its head. This one had a centipede parasite inside, so Sheva picked it off by killing the bug.

Johnson was cussing under his breath, picking off those Majini that were furthest away with his sniper rifle. "Where did you get this guy, and where can we get one?"

"You gotta ask Blackwatch whether they'll loan him to you", Sheva commented, lowering her rifle when the last guy collapsed into a bloody heap.

"Or we can finish this job here and won't have to deal with bio-weapon-dealing assholes anymore", Chris suggested. "Seriously, I'd like to do a normal job that doesn't involve watching towns full of people turning into raging zombies." Life would be very boring then. But boring was good. Boring was satisfying.

Heavy thuds drew his attention, and he turned to watch his Blackwatch contact stomp towards them, his armor glistening with blood and gore. From up close, the shell looked even more terrifying, Chris thought, _especially_ with all that blood smeared on it. Spines and spikes jutted out from smooth planes and literally carved muscles, and his face was nothing more than a smooth plate. Unlike all other BOWs he'd seen, this one had not one weak spot on his body. Maybe he had been correct when he claimed Blackwatch did a better job at buildings these things. If that was true, then he was very glad they only had this one, and that he was working on their side.

"Good work with the big guy", Chris told him.

Mercer glared at him inasmuch one could glare without eyes or face, but there was a tense angle to his head. "Irving", he growled. "He knows who's responsible."

"Which means we need to find that sorry son of a bitch", Sheva added with a venomous tone. _They need to pay for what they did to my family_, her eyes said, and Chris nodded only. He knew this need for vengeance. Which meant he had to look after her so she wouldn't get herself killed.

She turned away and knelt down next to one of the bodies, taking the dog tags off him, then paused and eyed Johnson. "We gotta get them back home, Dave."

The sniper nodded. "I know"

Chris helped him without asking, collecting the bodies and dragging them into one designated area, while Sheva took their dog tags to wrap them around her forearm. It was obvious they both had a personal involvement in this. Mercer didn't, so he busied himself by checking on the perimeters, collecting the weapons and ammunition they could need and stomped the occasional infected into the ground.

Technically, they should get the Hell out of there. HQ had called in and ordered them to evacuate, and it was probably a good idea- a lot of people had died, and they were going against God knew what. But neither would actually follow the orders. Sheva had lost her family, Chris had lost his partner. She was after revenge for Delta Team, he wanted to know more. There had been a picture of Jill, and more even, a picture with a very recent date. A date after she disappeared.

It was her, he'd been with her for so long, he would recognize her anywhere. He had to hurry if he wanted to find her.

Johnson approached him, frown on his face. "Hey, Redfield?"

"Yes?"

"I haven't found Josh anywhere."

"Captain Stone?" His brow furrowed. "Wait, do you mean he could still be alive?"

"He's tough, I think so", Johnson grimaced. "I am going to stay here, look after my guys."

"I think it would be safer if you come with us", Chris urged him. "Who knows what Majini are still around here?"

"Technically we are supposed to go back to HQ. I'll call for backup and hide in the tallest building I can find, tell them I'm pinned down and wait for extraction", Johnson assured him. "I can deal. You, however, you look after our little sister, okay? Sheva's a good girl."

Chris wanted to argue, but Sheva cut in. "Be careful, okay, Dave? I won't forgive you if you die."

"Don't worry. I got this."

"We should hurry if we want to catch up with Irving", Mercer threw in. He was back in his more human shape, and had cleaned himself off too. Chris appreciated it. The Runner inclined his head. "I assume you want to find this Jill too, no?"

"I have to", Chris sighed.

"If you wanted to do this solo, be the big hero, then you're shit out of luck", Sheva bit out. "Irving knows where this Jill is. Irving knows where these parasites came from. Irving is the bastard that killed my family. I'm in with this."

"Our Orders were to evacuate. If you go with me, you're knowingly defying order", Chris reminded her.

"Good. Because that means we won't have to play by the book anymore."

Chris grinned. "Copy that."

They headed to the edge of the dock, to where a air boat was moored. "There's a village in the swamp", Sheva pointed out as she climbed on. "And indigenous tribe called the Ndipaya. Maybe they've heard something."

"How long until we get there?" Mercer questioned, also carefully climbing into the boat. It creaked under his weight and sank deep into the water, but stayed afloat.

"I guess at dawn we'll be there", Sheva assumed. "Why? Not a fan of boating?"

"Not a fan of water."

* * *

The air was rushing past them, frogs were croaking. Chris heard various birds, and something that sounded like crocodiles did on National Geographic. He was feeling a little...somber? Or did he actually feel relieved? Sheva had asked what had happened to Jill, and he just told his partners what had happened in 2006. How they faced Wesker, how they lost, how Jill sacrificed herself by tackling him out of the window. Neither body had been recovered, though the BSAA assumed she was dead. Chris never believed it, he said, always kept looking for her, for any trace of her. That was the reason he relentlessly threw himself into one mission after the other, just to find something that told him where she was.

"I never did", he finished. "Until that memory chip from Delta Team." He showed them the picture on his PDA. "That's her. That's Jill. She must have been here, and I bet Irving knows about her. I have to find her." Or at least find out what happened to her. It wasn't so much to have lost her, it was the uncertainty about it all.

"You were close", Sheva observed.

"We were partners." They had never been more, right? "What about you?" He asked her. "How did you join the BSAA?"

Sheva sighed. "My parents were involved in an accident caused by a pharmaceutical company when I was young. It was the largest company in my village, and most people worked there."

Chris felt his face tighten. "Umbrella?"

"Yes", her expression was dark and Chris swore under his breath. Umbrella again. What did they gain from destroying so many lives? "I only found out later that the accident was to cover up the manufacturing of biological weapons for terrorists." She spat into the bog. "They were using Africa as a test bed for their experiments." So her parents died because of Bioweapons, and someone had to pay for that. Good for a reason as any to join the BSAA.

He scoffed. "Umbrella's done for, but they are still screwing us over from beyond the grave." He glanced at Alex. "What about you?"

"I thought we already had our little heart-to-heart?"

"You didn't let on much. How did you end up joining Blackwatch? I thought you didn't like them?"

"I don't. They're assholes and I'll be happy if they all go die in a ditch. But as long I'm playing along, they're looking after my sister."

"Sister?" That was the first time Chris heard of one.

"When shit went down in Manhattan, she was badly injured by the Infected. She wasn't infected herself, but she went into a coma. I had a doctor who tried to help, but she didn't get any better, especially since we tried to hide her. Then one day Cross stood in the door. He made me an offer. I help him hunt down whatever biological weapon got out, and he would help me with Dana." There was something that could have been a smile on his face. "She woke up two weeks ago. Keeps complaining about therapy and the food she's getting, but I know she's safe. Cross has his eyes on her, and nobody fucks with Cross."

"Then let's make sure she stays safe", Sheva commented. "By finding Irving and putting an end to whatever he's doing. And avenging our brothers on the way."

Chris nodded. "Yup. Let's do that."

"We should be careful", Mercer suggested. "We're coming closer to a large collection of infected."

"How do you know?"

"I consumed the big guy, and a large amount of Plagas", he explained simply. "When I consume infected matter of a leader, I gain the ability to basically hack into their Hive Mind, should one exist. Everything that is basing on Spencer's 'Progenitor Virus' has a Hive Mind, as does the Plagas." He pointed at the village that was appearing in the distance. "I can hear a lot of voices coming from over there. Keep your guard up."

"Which means there won't be any friendly faces." Chris shut off the engine to cut the noise, and the boat continued to drift. When its momentum petered out, they used stakes to silently glide further. A part of the village was elevated above the water on poles, and other parts were flat marshland ground.

When they climbed on land at the dock, they quickly realized just how silent it was.

"Lying in wait?" Chris whispered.

"The Ndipaya are warriors", Sheva explained in a hushed tone. "Different to the guys we've seen in Kijuju. They're going to watch us, and then attack us when they think our guard is down."

"Let's not leave them waiting, huh?" Mercer muttered, arms rippling and turning into his talons. "I'll go first, draw attention. You pick them off."

"Got it."

The Runner leapt out of their cover, barreling right towards the closest building and just tearing out the wooden wall. Several men, all dressed in grass and beads, jumped him. Chris simply opened fire, picking off two before they even reached the other man. Sheva got another one, everybody else fell victim to a set of giant claws. Another Majini approached, this one dressed with a ceremonial headdress and standing at easily nine feet. Alex tackled into him and literally tore out the guy's spine and the parasite in one brutal move, then crushed both under his heel.

Disregarding the carnage, he turned and rushed further into the village, smashing his way through buildings and infected like they weren't even there. Chris and Sheva followed after him, occasionally taking down a few guys that avoided the raging bioweapon. On the way, Chris noticed the differences between those guys and the guys in Kijuju: They were faster, more resilient, could jump higher and further. They were of a much more unhealthy skin color than the others, and often had flayed skin on their bodies, along with exposed hearts. Different Plagas strain, most likely.  
Chris eventually stopped to take a breather, Sheva doing the same while Alex lurked nearby. "No women", he said. "No children either. Same as Kijuju."

Sheva was blinking like she just noticed it, then looked around. "You're right. It were only men that attacked us, or older teenagers. But never females."

She abruptly moved to the side, kicking down a door and marching right in. Whether it was luck, or she had some instinct that told her where to look, Chris didn't know, but when she marched into the small hut there, he noticed the dusty bed and damaged toys sitting on the floor. It had been a children's bedroom once. But there was no child around. Sheva made a noise as she found a half destroyed diary on the desk. "This could help", she commented, then leafed through.

And then she read it out loud, translating it directly, and Chris felt bile rise in his throat. It was dated from 5th April to 14th April and described a child's view on how the village descended into madness after being vaccinated. It also described how first all the children died, then the women, leaving the men as raging assholes.

And more, they currently had _March_. So whatever went down here, it had happened even before the Outbreak of Manhattan, a whole year prior. Chris grit his teeth and clenched his fists, then turned his attention to the oilfield barely visible above the trees. "They used this area as a testing bed", he snarled. "They killed all those people for what?!"

"Irving", Alex growled next to him. "Must be him. Must have tested the weapons here. To impress potential buyers."

"He's dead", Sheva stared at the book, then pocketed it. "He's going to die the most gruesome death imaginable."

"First we need answers from him", Chris reminded her. "Names of buyers and suppliers."

"Yes, but then. Bastard will never see the light of day again."

"Outside", Mercer growled. "Medical tents." If he was the first to reach the tents, it wasn't for a lack of trying on the sides of Sheva and Chris. They tore everything apart inside, looking for clues as to what had happened.

"Field Test log", Chris declared as he finally held the folder in his hand. It was sickening what they read there. All those dead people, all those infections, they were purely _business_. Weapon testing to develop a commercial useable strain. They regarded the deaths of women and children as 'setbacks', simple numbers on a board. The goal had been to create Supersoldiers, something Blackwatch had managed to achieve the same year, with obvious no ill effect at all.

When the plans here didn't work, they more or less abandoned the whole project. Interestingly and less sickening was the paragraph describing this as 'Submissive strain', as opposed to a 'Dominant strain'. At this, Alex had leaned over his arm (since Chris was nearly a head taller than him), and read the part with rapt attention. According to the scientists, these Plagas 2 and 3 strains they encountered were genetically designed to be controlled by Dominant Strain Plagas. And more, they also discovered in those files just who introduced Biological Weapons to Africa.

"Tricell?!" Sheva bit out. "What the Hell?"

"Part Shipping, part natural resources, part pharmaceutical company", Alex pointed out. His expression became thoughtful. "I guess that explains where Irving has the funding and staff from to develop these weapons in the first place."

"Yeah", Chris shook his head. "I'm going to hold on these files then. We'll need something to show the bosses when they'll ask why we disobeyed our orders." He scoffed and put the folder into his bag. "C'mon. We still need to get into the oil fields."

* * *

Getting into the industrial complex was easily done. Whatever the files were to Mercer, he took everything they encountered as a personal insult. He tore through thick steel like it was wet paper, he destroyed obstacles with the maximum amount of violence and turned whatever critter tried to ambush them into bloody chunks. At this point, Chris was nearly too afraid to ask what got him in a twist like that. He could imagine what it was. He had lost his very _humanity_, his city and nearly his sister to biological weapons; and now they encountered proof that these people tried to _sell_ this shit. No wonder he was upset.

Another door was caved in under a violent blow and Mercer marched into the room beyond, talons flexing at his sides. Chris could hear him inhale the air sharply- and then his entire aggression suddenly bled away and turned into confusion. Chris and Sheva just caught up to him, wondering what this was about, when they heard the sharp click of a safety being taken off. They turned slowly, not wanting to antagonize whoever was nearby, when Chris's heart leapt into his throat at the sight of a familiar face.

Sheva's eyes went large. "Josh?"

The other gun was lowered, and Captain Stone's expression eased up too. "Sheva."

"You're alive!" She only barely stopped herself from lunging at him and hugging him, then concern appeared on her features. "You okay? How did you get here?"

Stone deflated visibly, and there was a wince on his face as he exhaled. Probably bruised ribs. "We were at the port when we were attacked", he explained. "Then...I don't know. I ended up here." He seemed confused. "Where is the rest of the team?" Chris inhaled sharply, and Sheva lowered her eyes to the dog tags on her wrist. Stone's face fell. "Shit."

"Dave is the only survivor", Sheva admitted. "We hadn't known they were attacked. HQ ordered general retreat, but we had to finish this."

"Why didn't you retreat?" Stone demanded to know, "We're no match-"

"We _are_ a match for them", she bit back. "We managed to get so far, the main problem is just getting there _in time_."

"Also, we still are on Irving's ass", Chris added. "Bastard's responsible. We can't let him get away." He paused, then held out his PDA. "The drive you've given me, there were pictures of my ex-partner on it. I thought she was dead, but it is possible she's still alive and here. I have to find her."

Alex suddenly snarled and whirled around, eyes narrowing. Chris, Sheva and Stone immediately had their guns drawn and aimed at the same direction he was glaring, when suddenly the heavy divider doors slammed down, locking them in. Several Majini (of the city variation) jumped through the windows, or off the catwalks above, though didn't get very far when the three soldiers and one BOW easily picked them off like they were shooting clay pigeons.

"I can disable to elevator's locks!" Stone yelled, whirling around to the switchboard. There was an ugly screech of metal on metal, and the whole chain link fence cutting them off from the elevator was ripped out like thin paper. "Or we do it like that", Stone deadpanned. "C'mon! Into the elevator!"

The three humans rushed into the elevator, while Alex still happily ripped the infected to shreds. Once everyone down there was in a finely blended paste evenly spread on the floor and walls, he rocketed off the ground and hit the upper level catwalks to continue his blending, even before the elevator reached the top. More zombies scrambled upwards, too many for this narrow catwalk, and Chris reacted out of instinct, slamming the butt of his rifle into the face of one to send it careening back downwards. Sheva ducked under another guy and drew her machete, disemboweling him in one strike. The Majini stumbled back, just in time for Stone to take its head off. She returned the favor by shooting another guy's kneecaps so he tumbled to the ground, where Josh finished it with a stomp to the spine.

Chris kicked two guys at the same time, creating some room to breathe, before he blew both guy's heads right off with his shotgun, then he whirled and punched another guy over the rail and down to the floor. Stone drew their attention briefly. "That door over there-" He pointed to mentioned obstacle, "Is the way out!" He sprinted towards it, while Sheva and Chris covered him. Then Mercer charged towards them, spun on his heel and just threw his arms to the front, palms towards the Majini. The sudden motion somehow displaced vast amounts of air, knocking all of the zombies backwards and even splattering the first few. He repeated the action once more, and then Stone managed to get the door open. They quickly hurried through, with the Runner bringing up the rear.

"Shit, that was intense", Sheva gasped.

"You okay?" Stone asked, looking worried.

"No problem", Chris replied. "Just a bit winded."

"I'm afraid we won't have much time", Captain Stone pointed out. "The dividers coming down- that's actually a sign that the facility goes into lockdown. And lockdown around here means only one thing. The facility's going to blow."

"Self destruction?" Chris groaned. "Why do all Zombie-infested facilities come with a self destruction button?"

"You've got to stop Irving", Stone suggested. "I'll try to find another way out of here."

"You won't", Sheva snapped. "We just found you again. We worked together very well. Let's get this asshat together."

"Splitting up is always the worst idea people can come up with in the movies. Besides", Chris jabbed his thumb at Alex. "Best alternate way out of here ever."

The captain just blinked, then huffed out. "Safety in numbers then? Fine, you have me. Let's just get this over with."

They started moving again, heading further down the complex even as the alert signals started screeching to tell them of the imminent destruction of the whole facility. Stone seemed to know where they were going, and with Mercer, they didn't have to backtrack and look for alternative ways should there be obstacles in their way. Obstacles like Majini, doors, or walls, didn't matter. And during their mad scramble for freedom, Chris had the distinct impression that he was actually _enjoying _it here. Mostly because he was _smiling_. His creepy 'I'll enjoy killing you slowly' smile, but a smile nonetheless.

They got clear of the building in record time and were currently racing down the metal dock when Sheva pointed at the singular large ship anchored there. "There! Irving!"

But there was also the robed figure from before, jumping down into a smaller boat to survey the area. Sheva's eyes narrowed. "It's that guy again- Mercer, are you-"

"Already deconstructing my olfactory senses", he said as if it was the easiest thing to do. But then the figure started the speedboat and raced off, leaving the four of them behind bewildered.

Sleazy laughter greeted them, and Irving clapped his hands together. "Excellent timing!" He cheered, "Youse are just in time for the fireworks show! Boom!" He was laughing like a madman, not paying attention. On their side, the quay rocked, and the ship shuddered a second later, and Irving's laughter was cut off by a terrified squeal. Mercer stood right behind him, teeth bared and claws flexed.

Chris felt himself smirk, because now they had the little rat-

Alex slammed his claws right through Irving's sternum, yanked them back out and spun around, bisecting the man in one violent swing. Stone swore under his breath and Sheva was about to curse, when both their voices trailed off in breathless gasps as the same tendrils that had absorbed the giant Majini and the Uroboros thing grabbed a hold of Irving's body and broke him down just like they've done before. Mercer shivered briefly, one hand going up to press against his temples, but just one second later his posture relaxed and he ducked out of sight while the boat started to pull away.

"Just what the fuck?!" Sheva bit out, "Did he just kill the only guy that had information and got out of sight!?"

"...Looks like that", Chris deadpanned. Shit, did he screw everything up by trusting someone who couldn't be trusted at all?

"Guys-" Stone cut in, "We're getting visitors." Chris swore loudly as he realized that yes, in fact they were getting visitors. A whole bunch of zombie assholes just stormed screaming towards them, swinging various melee weapons and guns. "Majini!" Stone shouted, "Open up!"

It was still like shooting clay pigeons, Chris realized. These guys, despite being smarter than your average zombie, still suffered a lot from the typical human problem of idiocy. Instead of trying to pin them down, they yelled and ran towards them, right into the open to aim their rifles and guns at them. Which gave the trained military members ample time to simply pick them off. They had also the advantage that there were barrels filled with volatile contents strewn about on the dock. One hand grenade there and the shit blew up like it was the fourth of July.

Within moments, they took down the largest part of the group easily, and were about to finish the rest when they suddenly stopped in their motion, expressions going completely vacant as they dropped their weapons. It was so strange, the three stopped shooting themselves, glancing at each other uncertainly. Several seconds ticked by, and neither side was moving.

Then the boat exploded along with the first parts of the complex, and Chris instantly grabbed his two partners to drag them out of sight. The Majini just stood there, staring into blank space, even when one was smashed by debris from the ship.

Just...that wasn't debris. That was a leather jacket, and a hood. And the pale complexion of a meth corpse that hadn't slept in days. His eyes were of a strange luminous orange color, and he didn't even look at the when he turned his attention to the remaining Majini. "Go back to the oil fields", he told them. "And take your brothers with you."

The infected shivered, but did as they were told, scrambling back into the still collapsing complex. As soon they were out of sight, the entire complex went up in a giant ball of fire, spewing black smoke everywhere and darkening the sky. Alex had turned back into his armored form, and generated a pair of giant shields to protect the other three from the explosions.

Several long moments later, the shields and armor came down, and Chris could see the burning remains of what had once been an oil refinery. It was probably going to burn for some days longer.

"Good grief", the Runner grunted, dropping what was clearly a detonator, then finally turned to the other three with a casual shrug. "Let's hope the environmental agency bills Tricell for this whole fiasco. Not my fault they thought building in a self-destruction button was a good idea."

"Man", Sheva bit out, "We thought you were giving us the slip. Especially _after_ you killed the guy we came here for."

Mercer snorted. "I needed some time to get to Irving's servers." He handed over what was definitely the main drive of a computer. "I couldn't transfer the data, so I could only take this with me. Just hook it up to a computer like an external drive and you'll get the information you want."

Chris took it baffled. "Uh, I guess we got a few guys who know what to do with it." He put it into his most cushioned and sturdiest pocket. "Did you just control the Majini?"

"I told you, I can get into their Hivemind", he replied. "Plus, Irving had this with him", he showed them a broken and empty syringe. "It's a Dominant-Type Strain of Plagas. It was given to him as a last resort-type of weapon. He could have controlled any Majini in his closer vicinity."

"And...you _injected_ yourself with it?" Sheva gasped.

"Not injected. I consumed it like I did the big guy", he shrugged. "Blacklight is stronger than every other virus I encountered until now. Anything organic that gets into contact with my strain will be rewritten into Blacklight near instantly, while I also automatically add abilities I did not have before to my arsenal. The thing I got from this Plagas Strain was the power to control the submissive strains, like those Majini."

Chris blinked. Controlling the Plagas? He could take over other diseases and make them part of himself? Holy shit, as if he hadn't been scary enough already. Mercer just waved his hand. "I know where we need to go. Further up the river is a collection of ruins. Umbrella's been in there, studying the original Progenitor virus. When Umbrella went belly-up, Tricell took over and continued with their research." He scowled. "Because the Tricell CEO, Excella Gionne had something to do with Umbrella. She was the one who Irving gave the Plagas from Spain to, and she had him oversee the field tests in that village. They pretended it was a vaccine against a disease that doesn't even exist. Instead, they killed all the children and women and turned the men into zombies. He thought it was a one-time-thing. And then he had to realize that he ended up in their hold. The robed bitch is one of Excella's guards. Her job was to make sure he didn't run off, while also keeping him alive. He was their fall guy and their contact to the outside so she wouldn't have to expose herself."

"Wait", Chris cut him off, "How do you know of this?" He can't have had time to look at Irving's computer, so how could he possibly know all of this?

"Holy fuck", Stone whispered, and for a black guy, he was looking _very_ pale. "Those stories we were told- shit, they were _true_?!"

"What stories, Josh?" Sheva demanded to know.

"What Blackwatch told us about ZEUS- Mercer", Josh shook himself, and a little color returned to his face. "They said when he ate our people, he would know what they did-"

"I do", Mercer confirmed. "But only as long their brains remained intact."

"Wait-" Chris tried to turn that over in his head, but it refused to do so. "You mean you can steal somebody's _knowledge_?!" In retrospect, that would explain what he meant when he said his targets usually didn't survive the interrogation process.

"Memories. They are just connections in the brain, correct? Blacklight can read them and store its information. How do you think a geneticist like I've been learnt how to use tanks or helicopters?" He cocked his head. "And that isn't everything. I don't only take their memories when I consume them. I take _everything_." With that, his body bristled and shifted form, assuming a wholly different shape. A man taller than he'd been before, with a thinning crown of hair, black uniform and a distinct large scar on his face. Stone swore as he stepped back.

"Colonel Taggart? What the-"

'Colonel Taggart' eyed him slightly bored. "Blackwatch didn't tell you how far my shapeshifting went", he told them, and even though Chris had _seen _him being Mercer the second before, there was _nothing_ familiar in that man. "They never figured it was necessary for you to know it went further than just weapons or armor."

Stone inhaled sharply. "Is that how you got into all our bases?"

Mercer bristled again, turning into another guy with buzz-cut, beret, sunglasses and a short-sleeved Marine uniform. "Took the form of the commanding officer and just walked in."

"Fuck"

"So I heard", He turned back into his own appearance, pointing to a skiff moored to the dock. "Now I think there was still someone to stop?"

"Irving's dead", Sheva cut in. "The mission's over."

"It's not", Chris realized. "This Gionne woman. Tricell. Jill. It's still not over." He shouldn't even _consider _this, Hell, they should get the Fuck out of there, but they were here, and alone the possibilities available here...He turned to Alex. "Ruins, you say?"

"Underground ruins. Apparently, Umbrella found something there that had something to do with the Progenitor Virus. What it was, I don't know. Irving never saw or was told."

_Irving never saw_. Chris shuddered at that thought, but got himself under control quick. "I need you to show me where it is."

"Then I'm in too", Sheva bit out, not looking happy with her decision. "Tricell's responsible for what happened here."

"Ah shit", Stone groaned. "I'm in too. Can't leave you alone at the end."

* * *

The humidity was nearly unbearable, and the overcast sky promised the beginning of the rainy season. Chris, Josh and Sheva had eaten and drunk, and had attempted to nap a little, though neither of them actually felt secure to do so.

Chris assumed it were their nerves- they were moving closer towards the end of this mission. Jill was somewhere around here, and the origin of Umbrella's viral research was coming closer. They had to destroy the source, he knew, so nobody would ever use it again.  
What made his stomach turn unpleasantly was their current guide, however. Mercer, who was sitting at the engine to steer the boat to where they needed to go. Action speak more than words, Sheva had said, and so far, Mercer hadn't once given the impression that he was going to attack them. He'd been patient with them and helpful, and that meant for Chris that he could actually trust him- yet at the same time he was sitting within reach of a Biological Weapon capable of turning into every person he ever ate, absorb their knowledge and steal even more abilities by absorbing other otherwise lethal Biological weapons. An Apex Predator sitting not even three meters away from them, and they were trusting it with their lives.

Like on signal, a group of city Majini had attempted to ambush them by motor boat, and Alex had demonstrated his newly found ability to dominate them by forcing them to slow down and set their own gas tanks on fire, resulting in twin fireballs that killed them instantly. Even when he had done it to protect them, it was downright terrifying.

But it was in his skill set, wasn't it? And asking him not to would be unfair towards him. Not to mention, it would make things a lot more complicated. Chris wanted to find Jill, sure, but he didn't wanted to risk Sheva's or Josh's lives during this. Or his own, because he knew perfectly well that Claire would never forgive him if he got himself killed out of his own stupidity, and she probably would find out how to bring him back to kill him again.

And there was something that didn't sit right with him, so he turned to the Runner. "Alex?"

"Mhm?"

"You said 'She' when talking about Irving's guard. Did he ever see her face?"

"He didn't", Alex replied without missing a beat. "She was always wearing that mask. And frankly, she scared him too. When she pulled him out of the mining area, she threatened him to take the Dominant Strain Plagas, telling him to use it should he meet us again. He didn't wanted to piss her off, since she is strong and loyal to Excella Gionne. He was too much of a coward to do so, and would probably have injected himself with this shit if we had cornered him."

Chris was silent for a moment, brows drawn together. "You become the people you eat, no?"

"In nearly every sense of the word", he confirmed. "Except for that they are humans and I am not. I can imitate a human body, but I won't ever _be_ human again."

"Can you become Irving then, sneak to Excella and try to get her to come out?"

"It would be possible. However, I doubt this woman lets some little rat tell her what to do, and I already had the urge to wash myself after consuming the guy, I'm not going to turn into him if possible." He made a face, and it would have been almost endearing if it wasn't about having _eaten_ a guy.

"How much further is it still?" Sheva asked over the sound of the engine.

"Not much", Mercer replied, head inclined to the side as he watched the area. "In fact, we should be there...right about now." He steered the boat towards a cliff jutting out of the swampy area and slowed down. Chris spotted a cavernous opening just in the water, and the boat eased into it gently.

"Incredible", Sheva breathed. "What's this?"

"Far as Umbrella knows, this is natural. There are however ruins inside of it, and evidence points to it having been the old Ndipaya culture. Most interesting to Umbrella was the center, an old temple or something." He shrugged. "This is all I know currently."

"Well thanks, Howard Carter", Stone replied. "You know anything of the defensive side?"

"Majini."

"They shouldn't be a problem", Chris mentioned.

"Yeah, about that", Alex grimaced again. "I don't want to control them. Hits too close to home for me."

"Really?"

"There was this woman. Elizabeth Greene. She was the first infected of Redlight, and that was why the virus had full control over the other infected through her. She herself didn't have much free will and took it from others." He grimaced. "She was also the predecessor to my strain, so we have a lot in common. Like I said, hits too close to home for my taste."

He was being honest about that, and the way he was cringing- Chris was pretty sure that this was a real dislike there. Suited him just fine, though. So he shrugged in reply. "Truth to be told, I was going to ask you to leave some with some fighting spirit left. As fun as it is to watch them play along, it is actually quite _boring_. And we got so much ammo anyways."

"What he said", Stone added. "These things killed my guys, I'm not letting them off just like that." He sighed. "But I don't really want to head in there", he said. "I'd be just getting in the way. I rather stay out here and call for backup and transportation to extract you once everything's over."

"I can't force you to come with us", Chris agreed. "Do that, captain. And thanks for your help. Just look after yourself."

"I will, don't worry."

"Wait", Sheva suddenly piped up, eyes narrowing at the end of the underground river. "That's the boat that woman used to get away!" Chris followed her outstretched finger and discovered the mentioned vehicle sitting at the foot of a rickety wooden construction. They stopped their boat just behind it and got on the dock. Josh took the control of their boat.

"We'll see each other on the outside", he declared. "Don't die in there."

"Don't you die out there", Sheva countered. "I'm serious, Josh."

"Ah, you know me", he beamed at her. "I'm made of tough stuff." He turned the boat around. "Mercer, make sure they get out of there, and make sure you get all these sons of bitches. Either directly, or indirectly by gathering all information you can get your hands on."

"Will do"

Josh nodded and pulled back outside, leaving the three of them behind. "Okay", Chris grunted, hefting his rifle. "Let's finish this."

* * *

They walked through caves that looked suspiciously man-made with countless openings that let in pale light so they could see. They encountered wall carvings that were definitely man-made, and they encountered occasionally Majini. These guys were made of sterner stuff, however, as basically none of them were the simple-to-kill versions they encountered in the city. Nearly all of them were of the tribal variation, or the head-pops-off-to-reveal-a-giant-bug-version. And not all of them stayed down, even after a singular punch from Alex. Some exploded and turned into two-legged man-eating flower thingies. Shooting them was somehow soothing for his nerves, Chris found. It distracted him enough so his brain wouldn't keep running circles now that they were getting closer to Jill. And it was secure enough, two guys with enough ammunition to take down a small army, plus a guy who could pulverize rocks and people with his bare hands that were occasionally massive weapons.

They made quick process through the tunnels until they entered a giant natural cavern. Chris sucked in breath involuntarily, as did Sheva at the sight. Dozens of several stories tall buildings were nestled together, but there were also streets between them, plazas, markets, small halls. It was like any other city, or ancient city, that he had seen in real life and National Geographic. The main difference what that this city was entirely underground, and giant crystals were giving off light. Probably worth checking out, he thought, if he were an archeologist. And wasn't on a tight schedule to find Jill, and the CEO of Tricell and kick her ass for making bioweapons.

"I never knew such a place existed here", Sheva breathed in awe.

"Yeah, but it looks like there's been some recent activity", Chris felt obliged to point out. He glanced at Mercer. "You know where we're going?"

"Yes", he pointed to the hind end of the cave, where further tunnels were. "The place is right there. It's called 'Sun Garden'. There's also something called 'Stairway of the Sun', but I'm not sure what it is. It is however the source of the virus."

"Then let's see what it is", Chris suggested. He and Sheva were crossing a bridge, when something cracked and a large pillar crashed into the bridge, breaking it apart.

Sheva was on the one side, the two men on the other. Chris blinked. In a few moments he would probably realize that he could have very well getting squashed under this. "Uh." That moment wasn't yet, however.

"Eloquent as ever", Sheva sighed, turned and casually picked off the two asshole zombies that had tried to separate them with lethal precision each. "Hey Alex, can you bring him over here? We don't have much time."

Alex just shrugged, and before Chris could protest, he already picked him up under one arm and easily hopped over the break, where he dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Chris instantly tried to make his brain forget about that comparison, because he didn't need to think of himself as food when his partner was a literal man-eating infected.

That, as they quickly figured, was just the least of their problems. Because it seemed as if Alex had no direct information about this 'Sun Garden', so they had to pick their way through the ruins. And those, they soon realized, had been constructed by people who obviously had been able to look into the future to watch Indiana Jones for the sole purpose of building cliche-like traps _everywhere_. That was right until Alex obviously decided to screw archaeological procedure and just planted a few dozens ground spikes to trash the whole path, deactivate the traps and fill pitfalls with rubble for access. After that the way was easily to be followed, and bar a few stone doors, no different from a walk through the park.

And 'park' was actually the first thing that came to mind once they finally reached the Sun Garden. An artificial hill covered over and over in reddish-orange flowers growing happily despite being underground. The technological equipment strewn about did not really fit in the image of it.

"Huh", Mercer commented.

"It's...beautiful", Sheva breathed. "But...what _is_ this?"

"No idea", Chris carefully walked forwards, finding a slip of paper. It was badly attacked by time already, but he could make out a single word. "This says... 'Sonnentreppe'. Wait, that means-"

"This is the Stairway of the Sun", Alex pointed out. He was holding a research log he obviously found sitting on the machines there. "Huh, apparently there is the legend amongst the Ndipaya that those that wished to become the king were to eat one flower. Most died, but those that didn't were 'blessed by the gods' and became superhuman, complete with immense strength and longevity. Then Spencer started to get interested in this stuff."

"Wait- The whole aim of Spencer's research had been to _create_ a race of Superhumans-" Chris realized. "Is this-"

Alex knelt down next to the patch of flowers, a few tendrils unfurling from his shoulder and bristling in anticipation as he moved to pluck one plant out of the ground. "The Progenitor Virus", he muttered, staring at the flower in his hand.

"What are you saying?"

"These plants are the source to the Progenitor Virus, the source of the t-Virus, of Uroboros, of Redlight and Blacklight", Mercer realized. "_This_", he jabbed the flower towards Chris like it was a knife. "Is just a plant virus that lives in symbiosis with these flowers to allow them to live here. Completely harmless for these plants. But deadly to all other forms of life. Umbrella discovered it during their research on how to make superhumans." He pointed to a badly eroded Umbrella logo at the side of one machine, and Chris sucked in air audibly. "This is where they found their fucking zombie virus! The virus that spawned all the others." He cut himself off, jaw going slack for a second before he collected himself and wiped his palm down his face. "And here I thought I was basing on something lethal like the plague, or the pox, when in the end I'm a mosaic virus."

"Some of the equipment has Tricell logos on it", Sheva remarked. "So you've been right there too. Umbrella discovered this place, discovered the virus. Umbrella gets shut down in 2003, and Tricell picks up where they left." She frowned. "How did they know about this, however? This place is very well hidden. Unless..."

"Unless they knew where to look. How? Old files?" Chris questioned.

"Or they worked with someone from Umbrella", Sheva suggested. "Who knows how many of them managed to get away incognito?"

"Alex?" Chris turned to the man. "What do you think?"

"I'm thinking that we should make sure these plants can never be used again", the Runner said slowly. "They are the source of this entire research, the reason so many people have died. We can't allow this to continue." Then his claws came out again and he wandered into the center of the hill. "Stand clear." He jabbed his claws into the ground, and his tendrils immediately started weaving through the whole patch. Sheva backed off, looking a little pale around the gills, and Chris grimaced. More tendrils suddenly surged from the ground, grabbing and enveloping every last flower there. Mercer scowled- and all tendrils receded at once, leaving behind bare earth.

There was a moment of silence in which Chris realized he was holding his breath. But then Mercer simply got up and dusted off his hands and knees as if he hadn't just voluntarily ingested a lethal super virus.

Sheva blinked. "That's it?"

Alex arched an eyebrow beneath his hood. "That's it. You expected anything more?"

She shrugged. "I guess something like disfiguring mutations. Or loss of control."

"I am the strongest viral strain. Artificially engineered by a psychopathic genius to _be_ dominating. And the Progenitor Virus is only a passive plant virus. I don't know the odds, but I'm willing to bet I have way better chances."

"More importantly, it is gone for good now", Chris added. "That's one less thing to worry about."

"That's good", Sheva breathed. They circled the room, looking for a way further, when they eventually found a simple locked door. A single punch from Mercer, and the path was clear.

"Good, let's finish this", Chris checked his shotgun briefly, then started moving. The path led into a clearly man-made tunnel, with concrete and steel walls. There were faded Umbrella logos, and less faded Tricell logos. Not many enemies either, but cameras installed all over the place. Chris figured that it would be a waste of time and ammunition to destroy them all, so he ignored them as far as it was possible. They found some more research files and stuffed them all into their bags, found even a few computers. Alex removed their main drives like he did with Irving's, and Chris put them into the same bag, though swaddled into old lab coats to prevent damage.

"If the BSAA doesn't recognize the worth of what we drag in, I'm going to fucking quit", he grumbled while doing so.

"Blackwatch would probably take you in with no problem", Mercer suggested.

"Yeah, but I don't know how to feel about working with a bunch of assholes." He sighed and pulled the straps of his backpack tighter. "There has to be more in this place."

They found _more_ very soon. The narrow tunnels and labs opened up into a giant open circular room. They were walking along a catwalk, blinking into the aggressive artificial light as Chris noticed the countless cylindrical objects embedded into the walls around them. "What the Hell?"

"Four to six clusters on either side of the catwalk", Mercer pointed out. "Twelve pods per cluster. And..." He glanced downwards. "At least twelve stories downwards and one upwards. Hundreds of these things." Then his eyes narrowed. "There are people in them."

"People?" Sheva bit out. Her eyes widened. "Test subjects?!"

"Most likely."

Chris swore under his breath and hurried to the central platform, where a computer stood. "That means Jill might be here too!" She just _had _to be. They were _so close_, they were-  
An alarm signal started whining, making all of them jump. One of the pods above them hissed once and was moved from its mounting, releasing its locks with another hiss of condensed air. It opened with a gush of fluids, revealing a mummy-like body inside. Sheva grimaced briefly at the sight, but the corpse didn't move at all. Just sagged once there was nothing holding it anymore, then simply dropping out and vanishing somewhere at the bottom of the shaft.

The three of them blinked at each other when there was no sound, not even of it hitting the floor. Was too high up. "Performance issues?" Chris suggested after another few seconds.

"Looks like, but..." She looked back at the hundreds of pods "What have they done? All those people. All dead."

Chris grunted and headed to the large computer, starting to tap the keys. He quickly figured out what to press, and he got a list of names running down the screen. So many names...  
His heart jumped as soon he reached 'V'. Valentine, Jill, Test subject 0084-6237. He activated the name, and several files and pictures popped up. Her hair looked brighter now, blonde, not brunet anymore, but that wasn't the most important thing he realized: She had been here. Since Arklay.

"Floor. She's on the floor level", he gasped, then tapped the button of the elevator. The whole platform shook once, then started its descent. And the whole while, they could see all those pods, each of them having exactly _one_ occupant. "There are so many", Chris muttered. "They must be kidnapping people from all over the world to experiment on."

The platform shook and stopped, and on the screen flashed 'Emergency Stop'. Alex stood directly next to the red button, hand still in its closer vicinity.

Chris blinked. "Uh, is there any reason why you stopped us?"

"Yes", the Runner bit back, and that was when they realized he was being tense again. Well, tenser than he usually was. "That" He pointed at one cluster of pods that had been completely wrecked. All pods were broken open, the bodies gone. He grit his teeth. "And there's a new voice now. It's loud. And _hungry_."

Like on signal, a _giant_ bug leg hooked onto the edge of the platform, heaving once, and dragging the belonging body into view. A huge bug, with a gaping maw and entirely too many spikes rose above them. Four longer legs were anchored against the walls, and several shorter legs dangled uselessly at the bottom of its body. It also had a pair of fanged pincers and there were too many teeth in its gullet. It roared once and swiped one of its legs at them. Alex intercepted it easily enough, stopping the blow though he did slip across the floor for a bit.

Then he shoved, and the thing pulled back, screeching. Chris grit his teeth. "You in the mood for lobster?"

Alex scoffed. "Not this one."

Sheva blinked, not leaving it out of her eyes. "But, you said you can eat anything?"

"Yes, but I also have a limit on how much I can consume before I can't hold a human form anymore. And that thing is way above that limit." His limbs turned into hammer-like clubs. "But I'm partial to cracking it open."

The thing screeched, sending spittle flying everywhere. Chris grimaced and wiped off his face. "We'll distract it. Go!"

Alex jumped off the platform to land on the thing's back, while Chris threw his shotgun at Sheva and grabbed the anti-materiel rifle they found in the oil refinery. Without waiting, he braced himself and fired at one of the legs it was using to hold to the platform. The recoil was immense, but he was used to those kind of weapons, so he managed to catch the blow without dislocating his shoulder. He'd get to have a bruise at worst. Sheva was using her superior agility and speed, firing the shotgun at the bug's face each time it roared in pain. At the same time, the cracking of its carapace drew their attention too, and they could see it shudder each time another blow connected.

The main problem was, however, that the material was too flexible, bouncing back into shape a little after each blow. Chris had more luck with his bullets, and Sheva with aiming at its weak spot.

"Guys?" Alex's voice carried over to them after another particularly hard blow against the thing that made it screech and thrash. "Can you keep it occupied? I got an idea how to deal with it faster, but it'll need some time!"

"No problem", Sheva commented, backing up briefly to reload her shotgun. "Just make quick. I think I'm running out of shells."

"Me too", Chris grunted and fired another shot at the thing's head region, so it recoiled, squealing and bringing its pincers up to protect its face. Mercer used this moment to leap off its back and land against the support beams between the pod clusters, skidding downwards for a bit before he found his grip and thrust his body upwards, literally _running up a wall_. Worse even, he didn't even go slower than he would on ground, and vanished from their sight quickly enough. The giant crab screeched again and swiped its pincers at them. Chris dived to the side to avoid the blow, but had to drop his spent rifle. "Sheva!"

She understood, rolling behind the computer terminal herself and sprinting back around it to draw the thing's attention and allow him to grab his combat rifle. It was weaker than the Anti-materiel rifle, but he had more ammunition for it anyways. He fired several volleys at the thing's face, and when it ducked back, continued with its front legs. The continued impact of the high-density bullets had snapped off its armor there already. Sheva made a move for it, firing the shotgun at the weakened part of its leg. The thing wailed and was forced to pull the leg back, replacing its position for one of its pincers. Which gave them room to breathe since it was down to one freely movable pincer.

Then something sped from the darkness towards it. Chris's first thought was that it was a bullet. A very big, very human-shaped bullet clad in armor. His second thought was that it was Mercer, and he was currently in the process of using his _face_ as the first point of impact. Chris just yelled at Sheva to get into cover when Mercer hit the weakened back area he previously worked on. The impact was so immense the entire thing shuddered and its shell caved inwards under the blow. Its claws dug deep into its rooting spots, but the force was too much for its joints. Its hind legs snapped under the sudden increase in gravity, and its front legs gave up the same moment, so the thing found itself in free-fall. Not for long, though, because the next second its body jerked and thousands of black lances forced their way out of its insides, shredding soft tissues and eating up the steel-like shell within moments. The sheer amount of impact force and the sudden increase in mass on its inside proved to much for the rigid carapace, and even as the giant crab fell, it also exploded into every direction, spraying chowder everywhere, though luckily, Chris and Sheva had managed to duck behind cover quick enough to avoid the splatter.

The violated carcass dropped out of sight and hit the ground below with a heavy thud and the gross slap of wet flesh on steel. Chris shivered from the sound, though when nothing moved anymore, he went back to the computer to make the elevator continue its way downwards.

Down there, they met up with their third party member, who was looking unusually smug and immaculate, despite the carnage surrounding him.

"Had been a while since I used a Devastator", he simply said as greeting, "It feels great."

"I can guess", Chris mumbled, eyes narrowing on another pod that suddenly hissed and was moved out of its mounting. He was watching eagerly, but somehow this was wrong. He couldn't see a body inside _anywhere_.

When it opened and the fluid flooded the ground, he realized that the pod was _empty_. All the other pods were occupied, but the one that should hold Jill was _not_.

"Damnit", he swore. "Where is she?!"

The screen behind him lit up, and he turned to face a woman dressed in a very thin and very revealing dress. _"Mr. Redfield"_, she greeted him. _"How nice to finally make your acquaintance."_

"Who the Hell-"

"Excella Gionne", Alex spat.

"Head of Tricell", Sheva added. "The one responsible for all these dead people."

"_Nice"_, Excella replied. _"So you did your homework."_

"We still don't know what the fuck you're planning", Sheva snapped. "Your company is one of those that funded the BSAA."

"_That's why I have some control over your little group"_, the woman confirmed. _"And I told them to evacuate Kijuju. You, however, decided to not follow your orders. I guess you'll be court-martialed then. Very disappointing end."_

"Not if we take the evidence we found back", Chris growled. "Where's Jill?!"

Gionne seemed miffed. _"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."_

"Cut the crap!" Redfield spat, "I know you have her!"

"_You should cut your losses and get home"_, Excella simply pointed out. _"There is nothing here worth throwing your life away."_

She cut the connection. Alex just snorted. "Translation: There is definitely something here worth our attention. And she does know where Jill is. I think it's time to get some definite answers."

* * *

The complex was gigantic, impossibly large. How all of this fit under the ground of Africa was everyone's guess, as was just _how_ they managed to install everything without drawing attention. They simply assumed that Umbrella had simply greased enough palms, especially considering this entire complex had been built on what was basically sacred grounds to the indigenous tribes. The indigenous tribes that were possibly eradicated because of Tricell.

It was only going to get worse, so they put effort into finding the armory, because of course Umbrella would have installed one. The restocked their ammunition, scrounged up some grenades and med kits, and continued their way.

They eventually found an elevator, and used it to get back towards the surface. It was an old rickety thing, and was shaking as it climbed upwards, but it was solid enough. However, the speaker inside crackled with static. Probably had once been a PA or music system, though now it was somehow overlapping with the BSAA frequency, allowing them to hear at least some of the communication going on inside through their earpieces. There were shreds of dialogue, bits and pieces of the communication, thought one bit was somewhat understandable. _"-boros has-loaded"_ a mechanical voice crackled through the speaker. Some voice spoke, but too low for the PA system to pick it up. Excella's higher pitch was easier to understand, though no less confusing. _"Don't worry, the reserve supply is almost ready." _The voice turned brittle again, the next sentence harder to understand._ "That's-Albert-looking forward."_

"Albert", Chris hissed, not even realizing he said it out loud and not just inside his head. _That_ name had no good applications, but it was always there when Umbrella was dealt with. It could be an echo, or a callback to the leader of Umbrella or-

That thought was dashed quickly when Excella continued speaking. _"How are you holding up, Albert?" _There was no reply, and the connection was cut off.

"Wesker?" Alex asked intrigued.

"Shit! I thought he was dead!", Chris swore, keeping himself just barely from punching the elevator wall.

"He had powers, didn't he?" Alex questioned.

Chris scowled, then ran his hand through his hair. "He had. He was fast, strong, could heal-" His eyes widened when he realized what he just said. The Runner had picked up on it, though.

"He survived the fall", he summarized, "Then dragged Jill here. That's why you never found a body." He inclined his head. "Interesting, because that would explain how Tricell knew of this place. Wesker needed someone to continue his research with, and Tricell wanted an expert in Bioweapons."

"But what about Uroboros?" Sheva threw in. "It's been loaded...loaded into what? And what is that about those 'Reserve supplies'?"

"If it has anything to do with Wesker", Chris growled, "It's _very_ bad."

"Wesker..." Alex furrowed his brows. "Tall guy, black coat, blonde hair? Wears sunglasses twenty-four-seven? Irving had seen him a few times, never knew the name though." He scowled slightly. "Shit, I should have thrown a look at the files the BSAA had on him."

"That's not important right now. Look, Wesker's planning something with the Uroboros. We have to stop him." Chris grit his teeth together so hard he could almost taste blood. "Fuck, I bet this has something to do with his delusion of becoming a new god or something."

"New god?" Sheva asked in surprise.

Chris snarled a few swearwords. "Spencer was the founder of Umbrella, right? So he was big on eugenics. You know this completely arbitrary idea that good people have superior genes, right? Complete backwards Nazi ideology-"

"Eugenics had been discussed way before the Nationalsozialism", Mercer threw in. "Had been around since the 19th century in England, and spilled over to the other countries. During this, thousands of people were forcefully castrated so they wouldn't pass on their 'inferior' genetics-" He cut himself off mid-sentence. "Sorry"

Chris sighed and just continued where he left off. "Anyways, Spencer wanted to create a race of superhumans based on their DNA. Only, instead of selectively breeding, he went right for the big guns"

"The Progenitor Virus", Sheva realized. "That's what he was looking for, right?"

"Correct. He thought that by combining the virus with humans, they could create the perfect human. Had done so since the sixties. The result are less superhumans and more zombies and monsters." He glanced at Alex. "No offense there."

"None taken"

"And this...Albert Wesker?"

"While in Arklay, we discovered that he was one of several subjects. Orphaned children that had been taken in by one scientist called Wesker, and who were all given the same surname. They were brought up and educated on exactly the same eugenics bullshit as Spencer believed in. Albert Wesker was the most successful one. He's a delusional psychopath. He thinks that Spencer was wrong- Spencer wanted his Superhumans to control the inferior people. Wesker wants to kill all of the weak. Wants to make himself a literal god using the virus. He's completely off his rocker, but he's also really smart."

"Oh, that is complete bullshit", Alex snarled, his shoulders bristling again. "Then I know who's on the menu now."

"I won't stop you. Just make sure you get this Gionne woman too", Chris commented. He blinked. "Actually, do you think that's a good idea?"

"Why? If I consume them, nothing will ever bring them back."

"It's not that. You said you _become_ the people you eat, right?"

"Right." Mercer inclined his head. "You're afraid Wesker could rub off on me, eradicate _my_ personality and replace it for his own?"

"Exactly. He's already a major pain in the ass, we don't need him getting your superpowers."

Much to their surprise, Alex just chuckled. "That's a kind of wrong assumption to make", he pointed out eventually. "It's not like they are still people. All I take are their memories and their faces, but I know which memories are mine and which aren't. Their...souls or consciousnesses- they don't carry over. It's not like I'm a collection of damned souls, I'm just someone who carries their memories around." He shook his head. "The people I consume, they are just roles I can act out. Not people. Not anymore. Also-" He rubbed the back of his neck. "It gets easier the more people I consume. One voice won't carry over the screams of the others. It's like hearing radio with all channels at once. You won't be able to pick up anything and currently I'm at...little over five hundred different voices, I won't even know he's in there unless I'm actively looking for him. Plus, I already got a few dozen megalomaniac assholes. One more won't hurt."

Chris grimaced, realizing he had unconsciously stepped back. So he could always hear them then, just never one at a time. That was...not good. But good enough. "Okay, so I trust you on this. But Wesker and Excella _need_ to become dead. Normally I'd say only once they have given up all their secrets, but in your case it's kind of the same."

"Exactly"

"Then you have my full cooperation on that. We get to Wesker, don't let him escape. If he runs he's more dangerous. Just kill him."

"Oh I will."

* * *

There were no further Majini to defeat as they made their way through the complex at an increased pace. Chris didn't make the mistake to become careless, though, checking each door and each corner whether it was clear. Mistakes would get them killed, he knew.

That was why they stopped briefly outside of another automatic door, listened for a moment, then stormed in to take whoever was inside by surprise. This room had a low ceiling, with several glass cylinders in the center, just screaming 'Dangerous experiment'. Black tentacles squirmed inside the clear liquid. It was enough to set Chris's nerves on edge, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when the door slid shut with a solid _thud_.

It was just the door, and they had to continue. He set his jaw and motioned for the others to follow him as they pressed on, carefully scanning the dark room as they moved in deeper. Alex stopped suddenly, eyes narrowing. Chris followed his gaze, breath hitching when he saw a naked and bald man sitting slumped over in some sort of chair. There was an IV bag attached to his wrist.

"_Well, glad you could make it"_, Excella's voice made all three freeze up. _"Up here"_

They craned their necks upwards, noticing the woman standing inside a glassed-off observation area above the man, with that robed figure next to her.

Chris snapped. "Excella! Where's Jill?!"

Excella sighed. _"Jill, Jill, Jill. You're like a broken record, you know that? Just as single-minded as he said." _She paused, eyes narrowing. _"I wouldn't try that, Mr..."_ Chris noticed that Alex had attempted to move, though had frozen up again. When he noticed he was looking, he turned his attention on him, speaking slowly so his lips wouldn't move much. "I can take her. Just need an opening so she won't see me move."

"I can give you one", Chris mouthed back, then picked up his voice. "What's Uroboros?!"

"_You want to know? How about I show you?"_

It was never good when the bad guys were talking like that. Especially not when the apparently dead guy in front of them suddenly stood up and started spawning tentacles all over his body.

"So you're planning on selling the Uroboros as BOW", Sheva growled.

"_Good guess, but no"_, Excella shrugged as the tentacles suddenly pulled back. _"I have no intention of selling it to terrorists."_

"Then what are you using it for?!" Chris barked.

"_Evolution. It's a Philosopher's Stone, one that will choose through DNA who shall proceed to the next stage." _The man's eyes switched from milky white to slitted red, and he approached them in a threatening manner. Excella seemed to be giddy. _"My vision and his, now made reality."_

"Evolution?" Sheva demanded to know. "What are you talking about?!"

"_You'll find out soon enough. Everyone will." _It was never good when people started speaking like that. The infected suddenly stopped again, body jerking back as something started crawling under his skin. Excella sighed. _"Too bad. Looks like he wasn't worthy. Only the chosen ones are fit for the Coming of the New World." _

She was about to turn and walk away, when Alex snarled. "Evolution?!" Excella and her bodyguard paused, slowly turning to them. The Runner's eyes were glowing red, and tendrils thrashed over his body. "I'll show you what the top of the food chain _really_ looks like!" His claws came out in an instant, the biolumniscent spots near his joints casting a ghastly light. The jerking man stumbled back, even as countless tendrils broke through his skin. Alex's teeth were bared, and he just threw one glance at Chris. "Flamethrower in the corner. Aim for the glowing spots!" Then he was off, charging into the thing first to throw it across the room, then kicking off the floor to crash into the reinforced glass of the observation area. The glass survived the initial impact barely, but when Alex smashed his way through, Excella and her bodyguard were already fleeing.

They wouldn't escape, Chris knew. He pushed at Sheva's shoulder to get her behind himself as he brought his combat rifle into position. "Get the flamethrower! I'll hold its attention!"

"On it!" She stormed off, while Chris fired a few times at center mass of this thing. It had finally stopped transforming, turning into a wriggling mess of tentacles with several brightly glowing orange pustules on either side of its shoulders and arms. Aim for the glowing spots. Weak Spots.

Chris didn't think, just fired. The thing screeched and lunged for him, and he rolled to the side to avoid the brutal first blow. He had to keep it away from Sheva at any cost. It squealed again and its arm started writhing. He instantly recognized it from when Alex used the whip claw and immediately got behind cover as it whirled around and stretched its arm in an attempt to hit him. It only hit the glass cylinders, but shattered them in a single blow. Chris instantly rushed to the side again, keeping low and close to the wall as it started to pursue him. Luck was on his side, though, because the thing was unbearably _slow_. It shuffled after him, and needed very long to attack him, giving him more than enough time to figure out how to dodge. The attack in itself, however, was deceptively fast. Chris ducked and fired several times on the yellow pustules on its shoulder, popping one like it was a zit. A very large zit filled with yellow goo, and it smelled very bad. He forced the gag reflex back.

The roar of fire drowned out the thing's sounds for a moment as Sheva returned with the flamethrower, torching it. It was screeching and trying to get away, and Chris just had enough time to charge towards his partner and rip her off her feet so the thing's whip would miss. It would have taken off her head, had he not reacted like he did.

"Fucking thing!" Sheva spat, already scrambling back to her feet.

"You got a grenade?"

"I got one", she shoved it into his hands.

"Okay, same plan again. Go!" He dove to the left, she to the right. The thing was following her, though, so he fired his combat rifle again. It shrieked and turned to him, and Sheva sent out another arch of flames to burn it. Then Chris threw the grenade. Incendiary type, nice, he noticed the moment it set the thing alight. It thrashed, tried to attack them again, but both easily dodged out of the way. Chris slammed in a fresh clip, then fired until it was empty to keep it pinned down. Sheva continued working it over with fire, so its screams quickly became more frantic before being cut off entirely.

Black tentacles whipped into every direction as the hold its body had failed, and it collapsed against the ground, still burning. When it didn't move for a few moments, the two slowly came closer, though held their weapons ready to continue where they left off should they need to.  
They didn't need to be careful, because the thing kept collapsing and oozing and hissing until it simply dissolved into a puddle on the floor.

The two crept closer still, until a sharp voice called out "I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Sheva bristled and Chris swore under his breath as they both whirled to face Excella. The woman just arched one perfectly formed eyebrow, then pointed at the puddle. "I'm not sure in how far this thing is actually _dead_, but I know I wouldn't touch it for the next few days."

Sheva made a noise that sounded like she was trying to swallow and retch at the same time, and Chris was pretty sure his own expression said 'What the Holy Hell?!'. "Alex?!"

'Excella' eyed him with a bored look. "I already told you I could take the shape of anybody I've ever consumed."

"Yeah, but that had been guys you transformed into", Chris felt compelled to point out. "Also, why are you her?"

Alex scoffed, the sound rough and weird on Excella's face. "I went to get her private computer", he held out another hard drive and a few journals, "And her office had this facial recognition software. Would have given an alarm if anybody other than her had went through." The form bristled and turned back into himself. "My apologies for taking so long, but you had this under control, didn't you?"

"We had this", Sheva replied. "These things don't like fire."

"Uroboros is a pathetic excuse of a Bioweapon. Slow, cumbersome, too high the rate of rejection and death." He growled in acknowledgment, then waved at them. "Come now", Alex turned on his heel and walked away at a hurried pace. "I know what Wesker has planned and we don't have much time."

Chris and Sheva fell in step besides him. "What was the plan?"

"Uroboros", Alex scowled. "They wanted to spread it across the globe via a bomber. Wanted to infect everybody. Only like six percent of the population would have survived, turned into the Superhumans Wesker wanted. Everybody else-" He snorted. "Vicious Pasta."

"Fuck", Sheva snarled.

"Bastard", Chris growled, picking up his pace again, now almost jogging down the hallways. "What does he gain from this?"

"Why did Gionne help him?!" Sheva added.

Alex made a face. "Why do you think? Wesker is off his rocker, believes that he would become the new God if everybody else was dead. Gionne would have done _anything_ for him. First it was just his knowledge on Biological Weapons. Tricell manufactured them here, did this botch job with the Plagas too. And then Excella figured she might get _more_ out of it."

"More, as in-"

Alex's stare was _very_ flat. "Think about it. She thought she would be part of this 'New World' too, and since she helped Wesker achieving it, she figured she would become the Queen to his King on the top of the world." He spat. "She wanted into his pants."

"Ugh", Chris couldn't help himself. "Gross."

"She was just insane as he is." He stopped and punched in a code at a door, and the door slid open. "Which gives us another reason to kill him."

"How can we stop this?"

"End Wesker before he gets to the ship that holds the bomber. Then burn everything around here. Like you already figured, Uroboros doesn't like fire."

"Can't you do the mind control thing again? It's one of your relatives, right?", Chris questioned.

"Relative yes, but it's not aware outside of a host. Not like Redlight or Blacklight, or even Plagas- those I can control even when they are in their infant stages." He scowled. "Uroboros is too lethal to work with, and I say this when the first release of my strain killed like five thousand people in Penn Station in under three minutes. If Uroboros gets out, pretty much _everybody_ will die. The strain they want to introduce however, is the result of Uroboros bonded with t-Virus antibodies."

Chris blinked. "Where did Wesker have those from? I'm pretty sure he doesn't have antibodies, because he _is_ infected himself."

"Who do you think?" Alex stopped in front of a hand print scanner, considered it briefly, then pried the door open without touching it. "Valentine. Jill Valentine has those antibodies. But they won't survive outside of her body, and that is why she is still alive. Wesker used her to perfect Uroboros, to make it bond to a chosen few people instead of killing everybody."

"Where is she?"

Alex stopped, his glare halting Chris in his steps too. "She's too precious for Wesker to just lock away. She's at his side at all times. His, or Excella's."

Sheva's eyes widened. "Wait-"

Chris gasped. "The robed woman-"

"_Is_ Jill Valentine", Alex confirmed, and it was like a punch in his guts. Chris reeled, felt like the world was spinning out of control. "But- why-?"

"She has no choice", the Runner snarled. "Wesker had created another substance from the Progenitor Virus. P30, it actually does what he wanted- it makes people smarter, stronger, faster- easy to control. The downside is, it has to be administered constantly so it works." His lips peeled away from his teeth in a snarl. "Wesker jabbed a control device into her chest, one that keeps her under his control for as long as he wants to."

"I'm going to kill him", Chris snarled. "I'm going to-"

"You will do nothing of the kind." Alex interrupted. "Jill managed to get away from me, and is now surely telling Wesker of what happened. If he was smart, he would already cutting his losses and get away, but he is too obsessed with you, Chris. He will wait for you to come to him, and he will torture you with the revelation that he has Jill as weapon against you." He grabbed his shoulder hard. "Promise me you won't go after _him_. Because that is what he wants. He wants to hurt you so you will have to watch how he finishes his plan."

"What- I can't just let him go!"

"You have to. Wesker is _mine_, and I will make him as dead as possible. But you, you have to keep Jill off my ass. She will be fierce and will do anything to protect him, and I can't promise I won't accidentally hurt or kill her since I can't afford to play _nice_ when fighting Wesker." The grip on his shoulder tensed to the point Chris heard his bones creak. "Promise me you won't get in my way when I go after Wesker. Promise me!"

Chris grit his teeth, wanting to protest- but he realized the futility of it. He knew perfectly well he couldn't fight Wesker, not when he was so much faster and stronger than him- and he remembered Arklay well. At the same time, he also didn't want to risk Jill's life, not when he actually had the chance to save her.

He nodded his head stiffly. "I promise. Sheva and I will keep Jill occupied."

"Besides", Sheva piped up. "I'd say we let the guy who eats monsters for breakfast deal with the would-be God. I'm not sure we can take him, but we can take your mind-controlled ex-partner." She squeezed his hand. "We can do it, Chris."

"We will", he agreed and Mercer finally let go of his shoulders. "Wesker's a dead man."

"As dead as possible", the Runner acknowledged. "Now come. Jill left a noticeable trail, she will lead us right to him."

He started moving again, leading them through the twisting maze of labs and hallways, until they got back into the ruins. A metal door with the Tricell logo barred their way. Chris noticed Mercer tense again, and removed his gun from its holster.

"Through here?" He growled.

"Through here", Alex confirmed.

"Let's do this", Sheva finished. "Let's end this bastard once and for all."

The Runner lifted his foot and kicked the door, sending it flying inside.

* * *

"Always so dramatic. You haven't changed at all, have you Chris?" Wesker stood over them, leaned against the handrail of some form of balcony inside of what looked like an assembly hall. Chris grit his teeth and stepped to the front, _not_ looking at the robed figure next to the man.

"Black clothes, blonde hair, sunglasses despite being indoor and underground?" Sheva asked. "So that's Wesker."

The man in question just arched an eyebrow. "What? No 'You are alive?!' I'm disappointed, Chris."

"You should have looked for better allies", Chris growled. "Excella told us everything she knew. We know what you are planning, and we know that _this_", he pointed his gun at the robed figure, _"_Is Jill. So we are giving you _one_ chance: You let her go and we take you in, then you'll get a nice cushy prison cell at the ass end of nowhere."

"That's it?" Wesker just cocked his head as he slowly moved down the staircase to stand on their level. Jill followed him silently. "Not even a 'Hello'? You just throw demands at me? And you didn't even have the nerve to introduce your friends to me."

Chris's eyes narrowed. "Okay then." He nodded his head to Sheva. "Sheva Alomar. Member of the team your experiments wiped out to nearly a man. She's not happy about this and wants your head on a platter." He gestured to Alex, who instantly popped out his claws with a metallic screech. "Alex Mercer, Codename ZEUS. Has nothing personal against you, but will have you for lunch. Literally."

Wesker glanced at Sheva. "Sacrifices need to be made in order to further mankind's state of being, won't you agree? It's the way evolution works."

"Evolution works slowly, you asshole", Sheva bit back. "What you do is _murder_ and _genocide_, and frankly, using exotic viruses doesn't make you any better than any other bastard terrorist out there." She unlatched the safety on her gun. "So we're going to treat you like one."

"Disappointing, really", Wesker sighed, turning his attention to Mercer. "I remember you. We had great hopes in you. Intern at GENTEK, we hoped to poach you from them. You seemed promising. Too bad you refused our generous offer."

"Yeah, tough luck", Alex spat. "If I had gone with you, I would have ended a mindless thing with obvious weak spots. Just another monster. But I stayed, and now I am the fucking _King_ of Monsters." He clacked his claws together. "And it's lunch time anyways."

He lunged towards the man, who instantly dodged to the side. At the same time, Jill moved and tried to intercept his violent first blow. Alex brought up his armored claw to absorb her kick, then simply _shoved_ and Jill stumbled backwards, losing her mask in the process. Chris and Sheva charged her as long she was off-balance, forcing her off her target and her attention on them. "Jill! It's me! Chris!"

Alex whirled and let his claws whistle through the area Wesker's head had been a split second before. "The device on her chest", He shouted, "You have to remove it!"

Jill kicked at him, sending him stumbling backwards. Sheva fired at her, and she dodged again. "Can we at least give her a concussion? I don't think she's cooperative here!"

"Don't hurt her too badly!" Chris ordered after a second. "Only flesh wounds, Sheva!"

"Got it!"

"Tch", Wesker hissed, "I don't have time to play with you-"

"You will have to make time", Alex snarled, slamming his claws into the ground. Seconds later, giant black spikes erupted in front of every possible exit, taking Wesker by surprise. Alex snapped his own arms off and let the mass crawl into the ground, then simply regrew his limbs within the blink of an eye. "Because I just made sure you can't run off." He lunged at him again with a much higher speed now he had removed his excess mass, and Wesker had to dodge to the side, so fast he basically disappeared from sight for a moment. Must have taken Mercer by surprise, because there was a baffled expression on his face for a moment, before it was replaced by a manic grin.

"I always wanted to have a challenge", he sneered, "And you just bumped yourself up by several levels of interest."

"Well, thanks", Wesker sneered back, "You're not to shabby yourself. I'd love to dissect your corpse to see what makes you tick."

"You're welcome to _try._"

Jill lunged at Chris again, he just brought his arms up to block her punch. It still hurt like a bitch, but she left herself wide open. Sheva tackled into her side like a pro-football player, getting her to back off.

"Nice tackle", Chris commented.

"I played Rugby when I was with Josh", Sheva replied. Then Jill jumped them again, propelling herself high into the air to come down heels first. Chris and Sheva dodged, though he couldn't avoid the following scythe-kick the woman threw at him. It damn nearly took his head off, and he felt his muscles scream in protest. Sheva fired her gun at her a few times, forcing her to back off to avoid being shot. "Hey, can we break her legs so she doesn't run around that fast anymore?" She demanded to know.

"Normally I'd say 'Don't hurt her', but she really wants to hurt _us_, so..."

"Got it", Sheva got cut off as Jill lunged at her, wrapped her legs around her neck and spun them around, smacking the woman into the ground _hard_. Then she rolled to the side when Chris charged her like a bull. Sheva scrambled back to her feet, wiping the blood from her nose. "We'll only break _one_ leg. And maybe an arm."

Alex crashed into a wall with his legs outstretched, catapulting himself back towards Wesker. The man pivoted to the side to avoid the brutally fast blow, so nothing but his hair got ruffled in the process. Alex however, instantly changed his trajectory and shot right back, this time fanning his claws wide. Wesker dodged again, but apparently a bit too slow to actually avoid the attack. One metal nail ripped through his flank, shredded his body armor and skin beneath. Wesker scowled and bounced backwards, keeping the man in his sights as Alex hit the balcony with a solid _thud_.

"Lucky hit", Wesker growled annoyed, the wound in his side already closing off.

"Still, first blood", Alex grinned maliciously in reply, dragging his tongue along the edge of his claw to lick the blood off. He was silent for a moment, then he cocked his head. "Did I tell you I consumed every last trace of the Progenitor Virus?"

"You did what?" Wesker seemed a little more livid.

"He's not lying, Albert", Chris threw in, ducking under Jill's outstretched leg to tackle her off balance. She twisted and somersaulted backwards, getting away even further from her handler. "Ate the whole garden, in fact. So, sorry to tell you, pal, but there won't be any new Zombie Pox experiments for you."

"Plants aren't to my taste, you know", Alex added, and the biolumniscent spots along his arms stopped glowing. "No real circulation system to work with, and you have to bust down the cell walls too. However...I got a good grasp on the Progenitor Virus that way. And I just took a nibble from your strain too. Those two combined..." The spots flared up again, along with his eyes and the inside of his mouth. Though this time in _blue_, casting eerie pale light over his impressive talons. "Blacklight is already the strongest there is, but it won't say no to a little extra boost in _speed_."

When he jumped, he momentarily blurred out of focus from moving so fast. Chris heard Wesker swear as he just barely managed to dodge.

Jill's eyes widened and she instantly attempted to break away from Sheva and go to help her boss, but the West African BSAA agent instantly slammed herself bodily into the woman to draw her attention. Jill hissed and whirled again, and this time Chris lunged at her. One of his massive arms wrapped around her chest with his hand on her throat, the other snapped to the front and tried to get a hold of her wrist. Jill writhed like a snake, then threw her legs up to gain momentum and throw him over her back and into Sheva.

He instantly rolled over and snatched his arm out, grabbing a secure hold of Jill's ankle so she actually overbalanced and dropped to the ground. Before he could jump her, however, she threw her free leg out and kicked him, and it was only his quick thinking to throw up his arm and protect his face that she didn't take out his eye with her heels. Instead, they gouged a long score into his arm, though he let go of her in the process. Jill instantly leapt to her feet in an attempt to get away and back to Wesker, when Sheva leapt at her back, wrapping her legs around Jill's waist and her arms under her armpits while locking her hands behind her head. Jill hissed and tried to buck her off, but the awkward angle at which Sheva forced her arms didn't allow her to employ her full strength. So Jill hissed and threw herself on her back, crashing Sheva into the ground in an attempt to shake her. Sheva's breath left her in one gasp, but she stubbornly held on tighter.

Chris rushed towards them, but suddenly Wesker stood in front of him, delivering a powerful palm slam against his chest to throw him back. That blow bruised his sternum and nearly cracked a couple of ribs, but before the man could turn to make a move on Sheva, Alex appeared out of nowhere lightning fast, raking his claws through the space Wesker had been just a second before. Something splattered on the ground and on Jill, and Chris realized that Mercer actually managed to hit him, because his talons came back bloodied.

"Second Blood!" The Runner declared cheerfully. "Third decides the play!" Then he leapt after Wesker.

"Chris!" Sheva snapped in a strained tone, "I don't know how long I can hold her!" Her voice was cut off by what sounded like an elbow rammed into her side.

Chris was on his feet in an instant, hurrying over to where Sheva was still stubbornly wrapped around Jill. "Hurry! She's strong like an ox!" Jill redoubled her efforts to break free when there was another crash in the center of the room, and Wesker rushed past them, constantly dodging fast and lethal swipes from Alex without managing to get in close enough to attack him himself.

Jill's leg shot out and nailed Chris right in the knee, making him stumble and swear, though he quickly dropped his other leg on her thighs to restrain her. Chest, he said the device was sitting on her chest. "Jill, if you are in there, I'm very sorry." He ripped the zipper to her tight body suit down, revealing a thin undershirt beneath- and a large red bug-like device sitting just below her collar bones. How was he supposed to remove it? It it was implanted, he could accidentally hurt her bad. She could bleed out or something- Jill hissed and tried to buck both of them off with surprising strength, and Sheva gasped in reply. Chris didn't take any chances anymore, just grasped the smooth metal with both hands and pulled. Jill groaned in pain and redoubled her efforts in breaking free, forcing Sheva to clamp down even harder, though from her expression, she was already teetering on the edge of simply letting go.

Chris inhaled once, whispered "I'm sorry, Jill", and just _yanked _back, ripping the device right out of her chest with a high-pitched scream from her. Blood sprayed from the insert points the device left behind, but where he expected a giant wound, he was greeted by several small injuries, not much larger than a thumb. They would scar, he knew, but they wouldn't kill her. Jill arched back one last time, then went slack completely. Chris sucked in air sharply, fingers going to her throat to seek for a pulse- he found one, frantic as Hell, but _there_. Sheva moaned and relaxed her death grip, going boneless under her adversary.

"I think my arms are jelly", she complained. "Gonna feel this in the morning."

Chris was about to thank her, when something whistled over his head, making him duck low over Jill and Sheva. As it was, it was Wesker, who attempted to get closer to them, but was instantly chased off by Mercer, who seemed to be even more giddy if possible. Wesker, on the other hand, didn't look half as hot. His expression was tense, his hair tousled, and there were several tears in the fabric of his coat. He pivoted away from another strike, and threw a violent punch into Mercer's side, though he obviously didn't bother even _noticing_ the blow, sent instead a cluster of tentacles from the impact point. Wesker instantly retreated in his teleport-like fashion to a safe distance, while tentacles curled in on nothing.

Alex turned to face the man, thoughtful expression on his face. "Tell me, this Uroboros. Why tentacles? Just to serve all those evil super villain cliches? How can that be desirable?"

"It is an undesired side effect", Wesker growled with a twitch on his face. "Only few are chosen to obtain Uroboros's true powers."

"What?" Alex's smirk widened, showing white teeth that were definitely too sharp and too numerous to belong to a human face. "Super strength? Tissue regeneration? Super speed?" He laughed once and it wasn't a nice sound. "I already got that at a much better level than what they have. But what I really found interesting was the thing I got when I ate one of those failed Uroboros subjects." His right arm bristled and the claws vanished, turning into three-fingered paws. They uncoiled, writhing through the air. "Tendrils", Mercer pointed out simply, then suddenly charged without any warning. Wesker rolled to the side to avoid the blow, but suddenly jerked back in an almost out of character way when several of the tendrils tried to snatch him. He managed to shake one off that tried to latch onto his wrist, but there was an unhappy frown on his face. Well, Chris would almost say it looked...terrified.

He got to see that expression a few times more often then, all directly following Mercer's attempts to grab him. The tendrils he was using were a lot more flexible and dexterous than what he'd seen in the other Uroboros creatures. Way faster too, snapping out and snatching at Wesker at quick succession, even as Mercer himself swiped with his left talon at the man at an increasing speed.

Wesker snarled and dodged another blow, suddenly finding himself with his back to the wall. Alex hissed and closed in again, and the man rolled to the side, touching the black spikes his foe had previously placed.  
Black tentacles lashed from the material suddenly, forcing Wesker to leap to the front to avoid them. Mercer followed him with his head, grin widening- and then tentacles broke through the ground too, snatching at his passing foe. Wesker swore, his carefully constructed facade now finally crumbling away.

"Oops. Did I forgot to mention that I can also control them _remotely_?" Alex questioned in a mock surprised tone. "Or is that something your creations never displayed?"

The silent glare from Wesker was answer enough. "Then I guess whatever all of Umbrella did in _decades_ was never as perfected as the work that a lone psychopathic geneticist finished in mere _years_."

One tendril managed to snatch Wesker's ankle and made him stagger for only a brief moment, but Alex used the opening all the same. With the power of a freight train he slammed into the ex-head of Umbrella research, one hand closing tightly around his throat. With a loud snarl, he swung his arm back to build momentum, then slammed him with enough force into the solid stone ground to crater it and daze him. Before Wesker could do anything, Alex dropped to his knees, pinning the other man under his weight and threw a violent punch right at Wesker's face, shattering those idiotic shades. Wesker snarled, but couldn't act fast enough when Alex slammed his fist into his throat to make him choke. The third punch shattered his spine and burrowed the Runner's fist into the man's chest.

Then the tentacles came back, grabbed Wesker's body and tore it apart, twisting it into a shapeless mass of tendrils that Alex's body greedily consumed. When he stood, his body stopped glowing and relaxed visibly, and when he turned to them, his eyes were fully lucid, if narrow from the deep scowl on his face. "Gonna burrow that asshole as deep as I can inside my head."

Chris let out the breath he had been holding, sagging a little. "It's over." It was _over_. "We should get out of here and call Josh. Ask him to pick us up."

"Chris", a voice groaned beneath him, and his brain possibly stopped working for a moment. He slowly lowered his head, eyes wide as they locked with tired blue ones. "Get offa me", Jill groaned. "I think I have to puke."

Chris instantly jumped to his feet, allowing Jill to roll off Sheva, who sat up bewildered. "Jill? You okay?"

"I don't think so", was her shaky reply. "I don't think I'll be okay ever again. I-I'm so sorry for what I've done." Her pulse sped up again, and there were tears at the corners of her eyes. "Fuck, I couldn't control myself. Everything he told me I had to do. But I was still in there, trapped, screaming to get out. I just- I couldn't."

"Nobody's ever going to make you do anything again", Chris told her. "Because I'm here, okay?"

"And Wesker's dead. For real this time", Sheva added.

"We still have to burn everything here down", Alex proposed. "Though the ship won't leave until Excella and Wesker are on board, so we can take some time blowing it to Kingdom Come" He eyed Jill briefly, then cocked his head. "Since you suffered most from this asshole, how about you do the honors?"

She blinked, then tried to smile. "I think I can find a way to have a good time."

* * *

_One Week later_

"I can't believe they still want to keep me here for observation!", Jill grumbled, her arms crossed over her bandaged chest.

"Jill", Chris told her, "You've been under the influence of this stuff for nearly three whole years."

"So? I had a few hundred tests that prove that I'm clean!"

"I guess they just want to make sure", Sheva suggested.

"They could at least get me some _real_ food!", Jill continued seething. "It's been ages since I had a real burger. Or steak. Or anything that wasn't nutrition paste."

"We'll smuggle something in", Chris told her. "I always have your back, partner."

He was glad to be back home. They had torched everything in that facility, had taken all journals and computer drives with them, then blew up the ship that carried the Uroboros missiles. Mercer had confirmed that the only infectious substance left had been him, and then Josh had come with a Blackhawk helicopter to pick them up. He told them their bonfire had been visible for miles and pointed to their location.

They first were brought to the West African compound for emergency medical treatment, then back into the states. Jill had been carted off by their medics, Chris and Sheva received received medical treatment and were sent to sleep it off in their med bay, while Mercer- being the only one who didn't require any medical help- took all of their findings to their techs to have them duplicated and stored safely.

Chris and Sheva were already feeling better. Their bruises and scrapes had faded mostly, and they had eaten and slept enough. Jill was better too, but wasn't allowed off compound or even out of the medical wing and was going stir crazy. They hadn't seen Alex around so much, only once or twice when he was training his newly found abilities under the watchful eyes of Blackwatch. Who, as Chris quickly noticed, were more than disturbed by the tendrils, the remote control of body parts and the fast movements that allowed him to dodge bullets point-blank. And unlike Wesker, Alex could actually cross a much larger distance with the move, enabling him to nearly teleport from one location to another.

Today, Chris and Sheva were back at Jill's bedside, joking with her. "When are you going to go back to Africa?" Jill asked the other woman. Sheva shrugged. "Technically I can return already, but I decided I'd like to see what America has to offer." She pointed at Chris. "He also promised I could meet his sister. I'd really like to."

"So I'll see you around then?"

"Of course."

There was a knock on the door, moments before it was swung open. It was Captain Cross, who was in company of Claire, Alex, and a young woman sitting in a wheelchair. Chris scanned the woman first- she was thin and frail, but her eyes were sharp and calculating. And looking a lot like Alex's did. The sister he told them about. Claire grinned at him and plopped down on Jill's bed next to Chris, hugging him with one arm. He patted her head in reply.

"Captain Redfield", Cross began, "I didn't have much possibilities to congratulate you on the success of the mission. You did a fine fucking job out there." He nodded at Sheva, "And you of course, Agent Alomar. Good work."

"We just did our job", Chris deflected quickly.

"No, you did way more. You stopped a major player in the world of bioweapons research and you not only supplied us with the information necessary to nail their customers, you also made sure the entire research got dismantled and the information regarding these viral weapons got to us."

"TerraSave is already working hard on working on vaccines based on this research", Claire added with a grin. She turned to Sheva. "You Sheva? Cool. Thanks for keeping my idiot brother alive."

"It was a pleasure", Sheva replied with an equal grin.

"Cross yelled your bosses into submission", Alex pointed out. "They cowered in fear when he told them it was their fault this shit got so hot. Because we could have know about this a lot earlier with way less casualties."

"I managed to persuade them", Cross cut in with an eye-roll. "That it was in our best interest to utilize Blackwatch's information network for global screening regarding the selling and production of biological weapons _before_ they become a problem. Also", he folded his arms behind his back, "We're currently monitoring several Umbrella-related facilities and individuals."

"Already?", Chris's jaw went slack. "We've been here for a little under six days."

"Blackwatch works fast", Cross pointed out. "Now if you'll excuse me", he walked back out.

Alex snorted. "He was very impressed with you, Redfield", he told him once the door closed.

"I got that", Chris cocked his head and turned his attention to the other woman. "I take this is your sister?"

"Dana Mercer", the woman chirped, "Reporter in training at your service." She pointed at her brother. "Alex told me all about what happened in Africa and now I'm rightfully pissed." She drew a notebook and pencil from a bag on her lap. "Now, who wants to help desecrate Umbrella's and Tricell's corpses by helping me write a really mean article about their bioweapon research?"


End file.
